Max Verstappen didn’t waste time ticking the only box that really mattered on Thursday at the Nürburgring: he’s in. Two clean timed laps were the minimum requirement for any driver entered for the 24 Hours, but Verstappen treated Qualifying 1 like a statement of intent, not an administrative chore.
In the #3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo — run by Winward Racing — he put down an 8:18.539 that ultimately left the car third in Q1. It was also the benchmark lap for that entry, and, more importantly, it comfortably secured his personal qualifying mileage for the race.
That’s the bit that often gets lost amid the lap-time chatter. Nürburgring 24 Hours qualifying isn’t simply about grid position; it’s also about eligibility. Every driver listed on a car has to log at least two timed laps across Q1, Q2 or Q3, and every car must be within 120 per cent of the fastest time in class to even make the race. Verstappen made sure there’d be no drama later in the weekend about him being “cleared” to start.
He was out early once the two-hour session went green, opening with a 9:11.649 as the track built towards representative pace. The Nordschleife always asks its questions in unpredictable order, and Q1 delivered the uncomfortable reminder of that almost immediately.
The #24 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) hit the barrier with Ricardo Feller at the wheel, bringing out the first Code 60 and unsettling the session’s rhythm. But the more alarming moment came soon after, when the stricken #900 Black Falcon Team Zimmermann Porsche — smoking and stationary — was hit from behind. The driver was out of the car and standing at the side of the track when debris and a wheel went flying.
Everyone involved walked away unhurt, including the driver of the #146 Giti Tire Motorsport by WS Racing car that made contact, but it was the kind of near-miss that drains the air out of a pitlane. An investigation was opened, as it should be, because the Nürburgring’s margins are thin even when everything is working as intended.
When the session settled back down, Verstappen got on with it. Just past halfway he “uncorked” — the phrase fits — that 8:18.539 on his fourth timed lap. For a while it wasn’t just quick, it was emphatic: the #3 Mercedes jumped to the top of the timing screens by eight seconds. That gap, at this place, tends to say as much about traffic and timing as outright speed, but it was still the clearest sign of a driver who knows exactly what he wants out of the car and isn’t hanging around to find it.
With his qualifying obligation safely in the bank, Verstappen climbed out and handed the Mercedes over to Daniel Juncadella, then later Jules Gounon. The job had been done with minimal fuss — a very Verstappen way of approaching something that, on paper, sits outside his day job.
The track, though, was about to throw in a final twist. In the last half hour the #3 was still leading, 8.1 seconds up on the #77 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, when the pace suddenly ramped up elsewhere. The sister #80 Mercedes-AMG GT3 went quickest on an 8:14.957, set by Fabian Schiller, a lap that turned out to be perfectly timed.
Rain began falling in parts of the Nordschleife soon after, dragging lap times the wrong way and turning the final minutes into a survival exercise rather than a sprint. Wet lines appeared, drivers tiptoed through the shiny sections, and there was even hail reported down at Turn 1 — because of course there was. Lucas Auer ventured out with five minutes left, took one look at the conditions, and promptly came back in.
That was that. No-one was improving in the closing stages, meaning the #80 Mercedes kept P1 and Verstappen’s #3 entry was locked into third for Q1, with his 8:18.539 remaining its best.
Qualifying 2 comes later as an evening session — deliberately scheduled to force drivers into the changing light and the onset of night conditions. Verstappen is expected to be in the mix again, and you’d be brave to bet against him wanting another run at it. He’s already done the sensible thing by making sure he’s qualified; now he can afford to be a bit more ambitious.
The only real question is how much the Nürburgring allows anyone to be ambitious on its own terms. Q1 offered a neat summary: one driver laid down a lap that looked untouchable for a moment, another Mercedes found more at precisely the right time, and a frightening crash underlined that at the Nordschleife the weekend can turn in seconds — regardless of your name.
