Max Verstappen made his endurance racing debut at the Nürburgring 24 Hours in May 2026, driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3 alongside Dani Juncadella, Jules Gounon, and Lucas Auer [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. His team qualified fourth on May 15, with Juncadella setting a final qualifying time of 8 minutes 12.005 seconds [1, 4, 8]. Verstappen said, "I felt good in the car. Of course, our goal was to get into the Top Qualifying 3 (session). That isn’t an easy task with this level of competition. There are a lot of fast cars but we managed to do it." [1]
The 24-hour race began on May 16 at 15:00 local time and finished May 17 at 15:00 local time [1, 7, 8]. Verstappen's #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 initially built a lead, at one point extending to two minutes, and was ahead by around 30 seconds with about three hours and 20 minutes remaining [2, 3, 9, 10, 5]. Dani Juncadella reflected, "We had a good start, great stints, the decision for rain tyres at the right moment. We had a two-minute lead over everyone else. Just a dream race, but unfortunately it was three hours too short and three hours too long for us." [2]
However, the car suffered a rear-right driveshaft failure late in the race on May 17, which forced their retirement from contention [2, 3, 9, 10, 5]. Verstappen said of the setback, "事情就是这样。这真的让人非常难以接受。 我们在领先时，赛车的传动轴突然断裂，我们争夺胜利的希望也随之破灭。不过我还是要感谢整个周末支持我们的所有人。" (The situation is what it is. It’s really hard to accept. The driveshaft broke while we were leading and our chance at victory was lost. But I still want to thank everyone who supported us all weekend.) [5]
Despite the issue, Verstappen's team returned to the track and was still running at the finish, though out of victory contention [2, 10]. The race was won by another Mercedes-AMG GT3 car, #80, driven by Maro Engel, Luca Stolz, Fabian Schiller, and Maxime Martin. Their victory was Mercedes' first at Nürburgring 24 Hours since 2016 [2, 3, 10, 5].
This edition set records with 161 entries across 23 classes and sold out weekend tickets for the first time in the event’s history [1, 2, 3, 5, 11, 12, 8]. A record crowd of 352,000 spectators attended the event in 2026 [2, 3, 10].
Verstappen, under contract with Red Bull until 2028 but publicly frustrated with F1’s 2026 regulations, said the Nürburgring race was a "bucket-list" ambition and hopes to return yearly to race and win [1, 5, 11, 6, 8]. His next focus is the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix [2, 3, 10].
