Max Verstappen and his team-mates looked on course for an astonishing Nurburgring 24 Hours victory until an ABS issue, vibrations and driveshaft problem slowed their Winward-run Mercedes with just three and a half hours left.
Here are our snap thoughts on Verstappen’s performance and the heartbreaking outcome.
This was always the likely outcome
It doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking for Team Verstappen, not least because it had gone 20 hours without an incident like it, but this was always the most likely outcome.
The Nurburgring 24 Hours is really tough. At some circuits, luck is helpful but not essential, but here, luck is essential.
There are just more variables than anywhere else. The circuit extracts a far bigger toll on driver and car than endurance races at Le Mans or Spa. It’s simply ended the same way Verstappen’s two four-hour NLS 2026 races have gone so far - a brilliant performance curtailed through no fault of the drivers.
And there are even more hurdles ready to trip you up across a 24-hour race. Just look at what became of Team Verstappen’s key rivals.
Kevin Estre in the #911 Porsche and Arjun Maini in the #64 Ford Mustang? Oil on track.
Defending race winning #1 BMW? Terminal refuelling issue.
Alexander Sims in the #16 Audi? Incorrect marshal signalling of a code 60 means Sims rear-ends the #47 Mercedes.
Thierry Vermeulen in the #45 Konda Racing Ferrari? Speared into the barriers while trying to negotiate past a Porsche Cayman GT4 car.
Most of that is bad luck, but it’s also highly typical of the Nurburgring Nordschleife. As Timo Glock told me, “There's a reason why the manufacturers pull up with three to five cars because there's maybe one which survives.”
Team Verstappen did everything right. It just wasn’t the one that survived. - Josh Suttill
Near-miss shows how tough this race really is
It would have been a remarkable story had Verstappen won on his Nurburgring 24 Hours debut, but arguably a heroic failure on his first outing is an even better one.
He's drawn enormous attention to a great race that has never attracted the interest from the wider world it deserved, but him being seen - incorrectly - by some as simply turning up and winning immediately would arguably have done it a disservice.
What happened, perhaps best expressed as the race beating him rather than him losing, adds to the legend of both Verstappen and the Nurburgring 24 Hours.
The fact Verstappen didn't win surely guarantees he will return to finish the job, however many attempts that may take, although he's always been clear that he never saw this as a 'one and done' opportunity whatever the result given how he relishes the challenge.
It creates the potential for a more epic tale, his quest to win a race that requires luck as well as great speed and precision. That will likely draw more eyeballs to those future attempts, as if he returned next year for a second win it might not have been quite the same.
Verstappen has distinguished himself in what he's done at the Nordschleife, showing prodigious speed, adaptability and also a great deal of respect for the competition. But he's not the first 'deserving' winner of this race to be denied, and that will only make it more celebrated if and when he does so in the future.
Of course, none of that applies to his three co-drivers, Dani Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Lucas Auer, who already had history in the race, were every bit as crucial as Verstappen and will justifiably be inconsolable at performing so well but coming away with nothing. But that's how it goes sometimes in a race like this, and it's why they too will keep coming back. - Edd Straw
Just how motorsport goes
It’s simple: that’s motorsport.
They were right in there when they were there. That’s what matters. - Gary Anderson
This just adds to the storyline
A Verstappen win would have been really cool and a mega story, but this is actually a close second as the best possible outcome.
First, it showed exactly what Verstappen and his team-mates can do.
There probably wasn’t any doubt in most people’s minds, but it just helped really ram home how seriously they took it. It showed what serious contenders they were and what was possible if all the stars aligned.
Verstappen said several times that they were entering it to win it, they weren’t just here to participate and have fun. So they’ve had that opportunity, it hasn’t quite played out, that’s just how racing goes and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
It’s attracted a lot of new fans who have seen for the first time how hard the Nurburgring bites. It’s not just a case of ‘turn up, be very good, and you’ll win’.
That risk of the event being underestimated or a success taken for granted is not possible because the racing gods have just not allowed Verstappen to win this one and you need luck to succeed in endurance racing. There’s that element too.
This has been a massive victory across the board, for organisers, for fans, for Max and his team, for the other competitors having him there and the interest in it, this has just been tremendously successful and positive.
It just hasn’t had the cherry on top, which was the win, but I have no doubt that Max and the other competitors will have a chance to go for it in the future. They’ll be back for more for sure.
And that’s a great narrative. - Scott Mitchell-Malm
Just the start of something very fun
When the Verstappen car slowed, I had a fleeting thought of 'at least coming this close and missing out will mean he'll definitely come back and try again', Then I remembered who we're talking about here, and that this is just Verstappen simply enjoying himself, and he's probably going to do the Nurburgring 24 Hours again, again and again anyway.
The degree to which much of the opposition was hobbled in the early stages made controlling this race look easier (relatively) than it really was. My expectation was that Verstappen would undoubtedly be straight on the pace, but that the field was too deep and the race too complex for him to win it. I had high expectations, he definitely met them, I was surprised the Nordschleife was biting so many of his rivals and not him - and then it got him too.
This is not just what happens when an F1 driver pops into an another form of motorsport and shows a gap in quality. It's what happens when an all-time great with a great racing attitude who doesn't underestimate any challenge or any opposition pops into another form of motorsport and shows how good they really are.
And it feels like it might be just the start of a lot of very entertaining adventures - regardless of this first chapter not having the fairytale ending that looked within reach. - Matt Beer