Verstappen trades F1 for the ‘Green Hell’ and laps a minute clear of permit rivals
There are gentler ways to spend a free Saturday than wrestling a detuned Cayman around 170 corners in the rain. Max Verstappen chose the other option.
The four-time World Champion popped up at the Nürburgring for NLS7 on the weekend gap between grands prix, chasing the mandatory Nordschleife race permit he’ll need before stepping into a GT3 car at the 24 Hours. In a Porsche Cayman GT4 run to the CUP3 regulations—but crucially detuned to roughly 300bhp for the permit group—Verstappen qualified sixth overall in CUP3 and absolutely buried the times of his fellow permit-seekers.
How buried? Try 68-and-a-half seconds. In the CUP3(G) sub-class for those targeting the licence, Verstappen’s best of 10:21.591, set in wet conditions on the combined GP circuit and Nordschleife, was over a minute faster than the next car in that group. His opening banker of 10:34.244 already looked tidy. The improvement to a 10:21 was the sort of gap you normally see when weather flips mid-session.
The context matters. CUP3 proper features the full-fat GT4 Caymans at around 425bhp, while the permit cars are pegged back to about 300bhp. That’s why Verstappen’s final position on the overall CUP3 sheet read P6—tidy against the quicker machinery—and also why the chasm to his direct permit rivals turned heads in pitlane.
“The Nordschleife is at the top of my list,” Verstappen said via his official channels. “Racing is not just my profession, but also my hobby. This weekend I am at the Nordschleife with the goal to qualify for the mandatory race permit needed to race here in a GT3 car, which I would love. It’s extremely challenging and demanding, with its enormous length and tight historic layout. I can’t wait!”
This isn’t a whim. Verstappen’s long been open about his Nordschleife obsession, and the hours he’s sunk into learning it on simulators with Team Redline. When he turned up for a GT3 test back in May, those who worked with him said he arrived rattling off corner names like he was reading the circuit map from memory. Saturday morning felt like the offline proof.
For all the romance of a Formula 1 driver dropping into a grassroots Endurance Series, the purpose was pure admin: log clean laps, share a car, collect signatures, and open the door to the big show later. Still, the execution was pure Verstappen. Rain on the ‘Ring tends to level grids; he made it a mountain.
He’ll share the Cayman with 22-year-old Chris Lulham, his Team Redline teammate, for the four‑hour race this afternoon. Lulham’s part of that generation of sim racers who’ve quietly turned pace and precision into real-world results—and he won’t mind his more decorated co-driver bringing a spotlight to what’s usually a low-key box-ticking exercise.
If you’re counting, this was a reminder that the sport’s most relentless competitor doesn’t switch off easily. Between Red Bull commitments—Verstappen remains the anchor of the team’s 2025 campaign—and everything that comes with it, he chose a damp Saturday chasing paperwork on the most intimidating ribbon of asphalt anywhere. It tracks.
The lap itself? Picture the full Nürburgring layout: the early rhythm of the GP loop, the plunge into Hatzenbach, the constant compromise of traffic, spray, and cambers that conspire to spit you at the barriers if you breathe wrong. In a throttled-back GT4 Cayman, you can’t power through mistakes. You have to flow. Verstappen, obviously, flowed.
The headline number—over a minute to the next CUP3(G) car—will make the rounds, mostly because it’s silly. But the point is the process. Win the morning, tick the box, keep the program moving. Somewhere down the line, maybe sooner than you think, Verstappen will be back here with far more horsepower and an entire night to survive.
Until then, a detuned Porsche and a sodden Nordschleife did the trick. The rest of us just got a neat reminder: even on a paperwork day, Max doesn’t really do half measures.
