From pole to the win to disqualified: A rollercoaster day for Verstappen at the 'Green Hell'
Verstappen and his team of Juncadella and Gounon had dominated from pole to the win over the four hours of the NLS2 at the Nordschleife, before things went sideways...
After making his debut in GT3 last September with a win of the ninth race of the 2025 Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie, or NLS, at the Nordschleife alongside his teammate Chris Lulham, Max Verstappen made his return to the Green Hell today.
Since that first victory, his Verstappen Racing team has become a Mercedes-AMG Motorsport customer for their Nurburgring programme this year which includes NLS outings and entry into the Nurburgring 24 hours in May. That’s seen the Ferrari 296 GT3 he and Lulham drove switch for a Mercedes AMG GT3, and three new teammates join him - Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon, and (for the 24 hour race) Lucas Auer.
The first race of that programme was this weekend, the NLS2 - what would have been the second race of this year’s NLS had the first one not been cancelled due to adverse weather.
136 cars entered over around 20 different classes, with Verstappen’s Car #3 part of the top class, SP9, alongside 25 other cars and 71 other drivers. Come qualifying and they’d proven to be the top of that class, and the whole field. It was Verstappen’s lap that set their quickest, and therefore final time for the team as he found a window with minimal traffic and no code 60 - lapping the 24.358km layout in 7:51.751s, or 1.974s quicker than P2.
Race Report
Verstappen took the first stint as well and held the lead at the start before losing out to the veteran Audi GT3 driver Christopher Haase on the first lap, and he then spent most of his opening stint looking for a way to regain the lead. The gap hovered anywhere from within a few tenths to a few seconds over that period, with Verstappen eventually finding a way back to P1 just before the pair came in for their first stops.
The Audi came back up to the top spot over the pit phase, before Juncadella was around the car, now driven by Haase’s teammate Nico Hantke, as he opened his stint post-driver swap. From there, he extended their lead while running a longer stint than their competitors, and as that concluded, it was Gounon’s turn to get behind the wheel.
His stint saw him battle with the BMW of Dan Harper, who did briefly get ahead before clattering into the side of a Porsche Cayman to earn himself a penalty lap - allowing Gounon to break away and continue building their lead.
Going for longer middle stints allowed Verstappen’s final stint, and final pitstop minimum time to be shorter, as he switched with Gounon to get back on track for the final 45 minutes. Over that time he build the margin over P2 up to the over one minute it stood at as he took the chequered flag for the team in first place.
While the main goal of the outing had been to prepare and practice key parts of the race like pitstops and driver changes while getting to grips with the car and gaining valuable track time, Verstappen couldn’t help but find it “super enjoyable”.
“The team also prepared the car really well, so we could do some decent testing. They made me feel really comfortable with the car,” he said, “so yeah, really good experience for me.”
Gounon added that “it feels amazing”, before going on to praise his team. “The story is exceptional, my two teammates were exceptional, and the team also. So it feels great, honestly. Max is just so amazing, so humble. I just feel like I have a top teammate next to me.”
Juncadella reflected on the win as a “great start from Max in this project, and me also to be back with Mercedes-AMG in a very competitive car... Yeah, it’s great."
Things take a turn…
However, two hours after the race and about two further hours before the news broke publicly, the technical commission conducted its routine review of the ‘Tyre App’ or log of tyre use over the race and weekend. It was found that the #3 entry with Verstappen Racing had used seven sets of tyres on race day, which is one more than the allowed six.
Technical infringements in the NLS are black and white issues, and as such, the stewards disqualified the team with the BMW M4 GT3 of Dan Harper and Jordan Pepper inheriting the win instead.
Team Principal of Winward Racing, who ran the Verstappen entry, Christian Hohenadel said, “The disqualification hurts. Unfortunately, a mistake was made within the team that forced race control to retroactively disqualify the winning car.”
“I would like to apologise to everyone who was rooting for us. We will now thoroughly analyse the day, meticulously prepare for the remaining races, and work toward the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring with full concentration.”
Stefan Wendl, Head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing, explained further, saying that the error had come about during qualifying, “when multiple driver and tyre changes were practiced”.
Despite them leaving without the win, Verstappen and his team have gained valuable preparation, understanding, and track time ahead of that critical bigger race in May - something Verstappen emphasised repeatedly over the day as their principal aim of participating.
There is also an opportunity for that preparation to continue ahead of the 24h. With the break coming up in the Formula 1 calendar with the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix not taking place in April, Verstappen is “looking into” whether he, and his team, could partake in NLS3 on April 11th and look to put things right.
Poor Max just can't catch a break.