Nurburgring 24 Hours: Max Verstappen’s victory hopes wrecked by late car issue

Max Verstappen's hopes of victory at the Nurburgring 24 Hours are over after a techincal problem struck with just over three hours remaining. 

Verstappen's Winward Racing-run Mercedes-AMG GT3 was lapping in the lead, having spent most of the night at the front of the field, when Daniel Juncadella crawled into the pits.

The #3 car had been running full-length stints of eight laps throughout, so when Juncadella pulled into the pits just three laps into his stint, it was obvious that this was not a planned stop. 

Mechanics quickly went to work on the rear right corner of the Mercedes, with personnel getting under the car to do a full post-mortem. 

When Juncadella stopped, the sister #80 Winward Racing Mercedes took the lead, with the pole-sitting #84 Red Bull Team Abt Lamborghini moving into second place.

The Verstappen car was involved in a couple of moments of contact throughout the race, with Juncadella tapping the #84 car on lap one, with the Lamborghini suffering a puncture and dropping to the rear of the field as a result, while infighting between Verstappen and Engel during the night saw minor side-to-side touching.

While the initial thought was that the #3 car had suffered suspension damage, mechanics appeared to be looking further inboard, suggesting a possible driveshaft issue. Nearly 21 hours into the race, it is possible this was caused by one of the earlier incidents.

It has since been revealed that Juncadella received an ABS warning, which the driver believed he could manage, but the issue grew and the vibrations caused a driveshaft breakage. 

Juncadella stayed in the car for around five minutes once the car had been wheeled back into the garage, but was eventually convinced out of the seat. 

Winward Racing managing director Steve Buschmann has reported that the team is looking into something that could fix the issue, and it is "not worried" about the #80 car suffering a similar problem.

It is understood that the team is determined to get the car back out onto the track, although any hopes of a podium finish have been dashed, with the car several laps down.