Max Verstappen is well on course for a debut victory at the Nurburgring 24 Hours as his team leads a dominant Mercedes 1-2 with just over seven hours remaining.
The #3 Mercedes, which Verstappen shares with Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Lucas Auer, holds a 14 second advantage over the sister Winward AMG driven by Maro Engel, Maxime Martin, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz.
Mercedes has been the dominant force in this manic race from around the sixth hour with both of its leading cars regularly swapping positions in the fight for the overall lead.
They are on identical strategies so it has been a straight-up scrap between its drivers, and the battle went up a level when Verstappen replaced Juncadella around the 11th hour.
The four-time Formula 1 world champion jumped aboard with a six-second deficit to Engel, but he very quickly gained to soon be on the tail of the race’s 2016 winner – the last time Mercedes took victory.
Verstappen moved by on the final straight before Engel fought back, trying to edge past the Dutchman at Tiergarten while they both also attempted to negate traffic on the 12th hour.
But Verstappen held firm and while occupying the middle of the road, he and Engel banged wheels forcing the #80 Mercedes onto the grass on the right.
That pretty much ended the battle as Engel dropped a couple seconds back, before Verstappen continued to build his advantage ahead of Auer and Schiller jumping into both cars.
As things stand, Verstappen Racing will end Mercedes’ 10-year wait for another win at the Nurburgring 24 Hours, taking the German marque’s third all-time victory in the process.
The rest of the field is lagging far behind, with the third-placed Walkenhorst Aston Martin (Mattia Drudi, Felipe Laser, Christian Krognes and Nicki Thiim) approximately three minutes off the top two.
Rowe Racing BMW (Dan Harper, Max Hesse, Sheldon Van Der Linde and Dries Vanthoor) and Schubert BMW (Connor de Phillippi, Ugo de Wilde, Jens Klingmann and Neil Verhagen) round out the top five.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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