2 weeks ago
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Max Verstappen's hopes of winning the Nuerburgring 24 Hours endurance contention connected his debut were dashed by a precocious driveshaft nonaccomplishment that enactment him out of contention connected Sunday (May 17, 2026) aft starring for respective hours.
Red Bull's four-times Formula One world champion was sharing a Mercedes-AMG GT3 car astatine the German circuit with Spaniard Dani Juncadella, Andorra-based Frenchman Jules Gounon and Austrian Lucas Auer.
The Dutch driver's debut successful the 54th variation of the endurance race had triggered immense interest, with play tickets selling retired for the archetypal clip successful the event's past and organisers saying a grounds 3,52,000 attended.
Another Mercedes shared by Maro Engel, Luca Stolz, Fabian Schiller and Maxime Martin claimed the wide triumph at the 'Green Hell' from 25th spot connected the starting grid.
It was the archetypal for Mercedes successful the Nuerburgring 24 Hours since 2016, erstwhile Engel was besides portion of the winning crew.
That aforesaid year, connected May 15, Verstappen took his archetypal expansive prix triumph with Red Bull in Spain.
Verstappen and his teammates had been connected people to triumph connected Sunday (May 17, 2026) until 3 hours and 20 minutes earlier the finish, erstwhile the fig 3 car mislaid velocity and returned to the pits for an extended repair.
They yet went backmost retired connected way to beryllium inactive moving astatine the finish.
"We had a bully start, large stints, the determination for rain tyres astatine the close moment. We had a two-minute lead implicit everyone else," said Juncadella.
"Just a imagination race, but unluckily it was 3 hours excessively abbreviated and 3 hours excessively agelong for us. But that's conscionable the mode it is successful racing."
Verstappen said helium hoped to instrumentality for another attempt, depending connected his commitments elsewhere.
The Dutch operator present turns his attraction to the Canadian Grand Prix successful Montreal adjacent weekend.
