Max Verstappen’s Nürburgring 24 Hours weekend has started in typically uncompromising fashion: straight into the sharp end, no fuss, no easing-in. In the opening two-hour qualifying session for the 2026 race, Verstappen put the #3 Team Verstappen Mercedes-AMG GT3 third overall, 3.582s off the early pace around the Nordschleife.
The headline number is the position, but the more telling detail is where that lap sits in the context of the field. This wasn’t a quiet “get a banker in and stay out of trouble” run. It was right in the middle of the SP9 knife fight, with the fastest cars already trading meaningful blows: the leading Mercedes-AMG GT3 set an 8:14.957, with the #1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO next on 8:18.069, and Verstappen only a few tenths behind that BMW on 8:18.539.
Behind him, the margins were immediately brutal. The #99 BMW M4 GT3 EVO landed fourth just 0.063s back from Verstappen, and the #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Evo26 was fifth, still within seven seconds of the outright best despite this being only the first proper session of the event. Even in Qualifying 1, the Nordschleife has a habit of flattening any assumptions about “comfortable” gaps, and this classification already reads like a warning: if you’re not on it, you’re swallowed by the next manufacturer wave.
For Team Verstappen, the opening session is exactly the sort of platform you’d want—competitive immediately, but not so close to the ceiling that there’s nothing left to find. Third gives you presence without exposure, and the car looks, on paper at least, well-placed among a tightly packed top group dominated by familiar GT3 heavy hitters.
The SP9 order also underlined how quickly the frontrunners were prepared to show their hand. Lamborghini’s Huracan GT3 EVO2 featured in the top 11, with the best of them seventh-tenths away from the top five; Audi’s R8 LMS GT3 evo II put cars in the top 10; Ford’s Mustang GT3 EVO (2026) also broke into the top 10 with an 8:26.751. It’s a broad spread of brands, but not a broad spread of performance—exactly what makes the Nürburgring 24 Hours such a cruelly strategic race once the clock starts running for real.
A glance further down the classification shows just how deep the entry is. More GT3 machinery stacks up through the top 30, while the usual Nordschleife ecosystem fills the timing screen behind: Cup cars, GT4s, TCR runners, and an assortment of one-off class entries that turn traffic management into its own discipline. It’s the detail that always gets drivers talking here—not just being quick, but being quick while reading a constantly changing track and dealing with closing speeds that can be downright violent in the wrong places.
Qualifying 1, of course, is only the beginning. Conditions, yellow flags, and the simple luck of getting a clean lap in a busy session can shuffle this order around in a heartbeat. But Verstappen being straight on the pace early is the point. Third in the opening session doesn’t win anything, yet it does what experienced Nürburgring teams want at the start of a 24-hour week: it establishes that the package is credible, and it buys everyone a little breathing room to focus on the long game rather than chasing a panic reset.
For now, the #80 Mercedes-AMG GT3 holds the early bragging rights, BMW is already close enough to look genuinely threatening, and Verstappen’s #3 Mercedes is planted firmly in the lead conversation—exactly where you’d expect him to put it.
