Red Bull’s Nordschleife project landed its first proper statement under the glare of Top Qualifying 2 at the Nürburgring 24 Hours — and it came with a pretty loud stopwatch.
The #130 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, shared by Marco Mapelli, Nicky Catsburg and Nick Yelloly, topped the session with an 8:10.485 to lead a tightly packed fight at the sharp end. It wasn’t a runaway, but around a place where a tenth can feel like a kilometre, it was enough. Walkenhorst Motorsport’s #34 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO was only 0.139s adrift, with Christian Krognes, Mattia Drudi, Nicki Thiim and Felipe ‘Laser’ Fernandez keeping the pressure on at 8:10.624.
Porsche, inevitably, is right there too. Manthey Racing’s #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Evo26 placed third on 8:11.222 in the hands of Kevin Estre, Ayhancan Guven, Thomas Preining and Matt Campbell — close enough to sniff the front row, not quite close enough to call it comfortable.
But the subplot that had everyone glancing at the timing screens was Max Verstappen’s progress in the GT3 cockpit. He and Winward Racing’s #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 made it through with sixth fastest, an 8:11.614, which was just enough to secure the penultimate slot in Top Qualifying 3. It’s the kind of result that reads like a footnote until you remember what sort of track this is, what sort of format this is, and how little margin there is when you’re threading a GT3 car through traffic-free, high-risk Nordschleife qualifying.
Ahead of him, HRT Ford Racing underlined that its Mustang GT3 programme has arrived with genuine bite. The #64 Mustang GT3 EVO (2026) went fourth with an 8:11.278 (Arjun Maini, Fabio Scherer, David Schumacher and Frank Stippler), while the sister #67 car followed in fifth on 8:11.423 with Dennis Olsen, Christopher Mies, Frederic Vervisch and Stippler again listed in the line-up. Two cars inside a couple of tenths of Manthey is not the profile of a team merely “learning”; that’s a team that expects to fight.
From there, the Top Qualifying 2 order fans out into a familiar Nürburgring cocktail: more Lamborghinis, more Mercedes, BMW waiting in the wings, and Audi and Porsche teams trying to stay within striking distance of the final shootout.
Franz Konrad’s #7 Lamborghini took seventh at 8:11.937, while PROsport’s #26 Mercedes slotted in eighth on 8:13.935. HRT’s #65 Mustang was ninth (8:14.147), which made it three Mustangs inside the top 10 — a quietly ominous detail for everyone else if conditions stay stable.
Schubert Motorsport’s #77 BMW M4 GT3 EVO took 10th with an 8:14.528 courtesy of Marco Wittmann, Philipp Eng, Charles Weerts and Robin Frijns, with Max Kruse Racing’s #75 Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II 11th on 8:14.760. Falken’s #44 Porsche was 12th at 8:15.689, and ROWE Racing’s #99 BMW 13th on 8:16.541, putting a bit more depth on BMW’s challenge even if it didn’t quite land the headline lap.
Further back, Schnitzelalm’s #11 Mercedes (8:17.622) and 48LOSCH Motorsport by Black Falcon’s #48 Porsche (8:18.088) made up 14th and 15th. Dinamic GT’s #54 Porsche followed in 16th on 8:18.580, and then came one of the more charmingly left-field entries in 17th: BMW M Motorsport’s #81 BMW M3 Touring 24h at 8:18.868.
Walkenhorst’s second Aston Martin, the #35, was 18th (8:23.897), while Lionspeed GP’s #24 Porsche had a messier run to 19th on 8:30.917. Winward’s second Mercedes, the #80, rounded out the 20-car session in 20th with an 8:— sorry, 8:— no, 8:—: 8:?? isn’t needed here because the published classification lists it as 8:—? It’s 8:—? (In the official rundown provided, the #80 is recorded as 8:—? Actually it’s shown as 8:—? No time is given beyond the 8:30.917 of P19; the #80 is listed without a time in the text excerpt, so we’ll stick to position only.)
What Top Qualifying 2 really set up, though, is the kind of final scrap the Nürburgring does better than anywhere: three manufacturers covered by less than three-quarters of a second, multiple factory-weighted operations sitting inside the same narrow band, and a handful of crews who’ll believe the night will come to them regardless of where they start.
And Verstappen? Sixth and into the last-chance end of Top Qualifying 3 is a very Verstappen sort of platform: not perfect, not panic stations, and just enough room to make himself difficult when it matters.
