Max Verstappen has agonisingly lost a debut victory at the Nurburgring 24 Hours after his Mercedes was forced to stop from the lead late on.
The #3 AMG, which Verstappen is sharing with Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Lucas Auer, was in control of the hectic race in a Mercedes 1-2 from around the sixth hour onwards.
Brilliant stints from Verstappen were key to that with the most notable moment coming when he overtook Maro Engel in the sister Winward at 3am local time amid a thrilling fight between the two.
It even saw both drivers bang wheels when Engel tried to regain the lead, but he was forced onto the grass as it happened prompting orders from Mercedes to keep position.
Verstappen then built a 20-second plus gap before handing over to Auer, who was then replaced by Juncadella – with the advantage for the #3 Mercedes staying over 10 seconds.
But then at the start of the 21st hour, that gap to the #80 AMG began to decrease, with what appears to be a draftshaft problem developing on the Verstappen Racing Mercedes.
#3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO: Max Verstappen, Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon, Lucas Auer
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
It was eventually pulled into the garage with approximately 3hr20m remaining, handing a healthy 5m30s lead to Luca Stolz in the sister Winward.
Team boss Steve Buschmann said: “Unfortunately, we have a technical issue on the rear right corner. No contact, it’s strictly mechanical. Bummer, but it’s in the pit box now. We’re going to fix it and get right back out there.”
The #84 Abt Lamborghini (Mirko Bortolotti, Luca Engstler and Patric Niederhauser), which started on pole, is now second, with third going to the #81 Schubert BMW (Connor De Phillipi, Ugo de Wilde, Jens Klingmann and Neil Verhagen).
Winward is currently working on its #3 Mercedes.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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