Max Verstappen walked into the Green Hell and made it look like a go-kart track.
On his GT3 debut at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Verstappen teamed up with British racer Chris Lulham in the #31 Ferrari 296 GT3 and promptly won NLS Round 9 by 20 seconds. The headline isn’t just the margin, it’s the way he did it: Verstappen opened the race with a two-hour stint, ripped the field apart to the tune of 62 seconds, and never once drifted over the eight-minute bracket. His best lap? A 7:51.514 — two seconds shy of the series’ outright benchmark of 7:49.578 — with yellow flags costing him a genuine stab at the record.
Predictably, that sort of dominance triggered the usual caveat chorus online: “But it’s amateurs.” Nürburgring lifer Frank Stippler, who finished third on the road and has more Nordschleife miles than most of us have motorway miles, wasn’t having any of it.
“As everyone knows, he is the best track driver in the world,” Stippler said after sharing a Ford Mustang GT3. “That’s why I’m not surprised by his overall win. When you also combine that with a driver line-up of that calibre, winning is the only logical outcome. He’s arguably the best driver in the world, so I find all this discussion about his lap times absolutely laughable. In Formula 1, the others are missing something crucial, so why would that be different in GT3? That’s just crazy.”
Jeroen Bleekemolen, as Nordschleife-savvy as they come, backed up the numbers with a knowing nod. “He just missed the lap record, but if he hadn’t had yellow flags in that second lap, I’m actually sure he would,” he told RacingNews365, adding that Verstappen was peeling “three to four or even five seconds” a lap from genuine Nordschleife heavyweights, including Stippler and Aston Martin ace Christian Krognes, who holds the track record.
Strip away the noise and what’s left is simple: Verstappen turned up on one of the hardest circuits in the world, in conditions that reward rhythm and punish ego, and looked like he’d been doing GT3 here for a decade. The Ferrari was hooked up, Lulham was ice-cold in the closer, and the pair managed the race without a whiff of drama. You don’t fake sub-8s at the ‘Ring — not lap after lap.
Verstappen, the reigning F1 World Champion, isn’t shy about what comes next. “Of course, I would love to compete in the 24-hour race, whether that happens next year or later, but we still need more experience for that, of course,” he said. “That’s a given, so hopefully, we can compete in more races next year.”
That 24-hour itch is a tricky one to scratch when you’ve got a title fight on your hands, but the calendar does open a small window. The 2026 ADAC 24h Nürburgring takes place in May, slotted between the Miami and Canadian Grands Prix. It’s tight, yes, but not impossible — and Verstappen has never been shy about splitting his focus when the payoff is worth it.
Next season also brings a milestone for the series he’s just conquered a round of: the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie turns 50, with 10 events on the card and the ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers set for April 18–19 — the same weekend as the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. That one’s a non-starter for any active F1 driver, but it does underline how carefully the Verstappen camp will need to thread the needle if the 24-hour dream is to become reality.
For now, the takeaway from Sunday is clear. Verstappen came to the Nordschleife, drove within himself, and still rattled the lap charts. The Ferrari sang, the stopwatch blushed, and the locals — the ones who know exactly what it takes around here — tipped their caps.
You can argue the field. You can argue the format. You can’t argue the pace.
