Nurburgring 24 Hours: Mercedes wins dramatic race, Max Verstappen finishes after technical issue

The sister car to Max Verstappen's Mercedes AMG-GT3 has taken victory at the 2026 Nurburgring 24 Hours, in a race of high drama and attrition. 

Verstappen's #3 Winward Racing-run Mercedes-AMG GT3 suffered late-race heartbreak after a wheel bearing issue caused a driveshaft breakage while leading the race. 

The Dutchman's entry had led for the majority of the night and into the morning, but with Daniel Juncadella at the wheel, was forced into the garage just three laps after Verstappen had completed his final double stint. 

Juncadella returned to the track in the closing moments after three hours of repairs, but the car was well down the order, in 38th overall.

This allowed the #80 Mercedes to assume the lead, with Maro Engel having battled wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen during the night, putting two wheels on the grass as the pair locked horns.

As drivers around made errors or suffered with reliability issues, the drives of Engel, Luca Stolz, Fabian Schiller, and Maxime Martin were understated, with mixed conditions and all the other chaos of an endurance race failing to phase the quartet.

Victory was Mercedes' first on the Nordschleife since 2016, with the mechanics lining the pitwall to wave home the #80. 

The race was one of redemption for the #84 Red Bull Team Abt pole-sitting Lamborghini Huracan GT3, with Mirko Bortolotti driving the final stint after suffering a puncture on lap one on Saturday. 

However, an 86s penalty for a Code 60 violation where the #84 was clocked at 116kph in a 60kph region, looked to have cost Bortolotti second place to the #24 Aston Martin.

But a Code 60 slow zone on the last lap caught out the Aston Martin entry, leaving the Walkenhorst Motorsport car in third place. 

Despite this disappointment, the result remained Aston Martin's first overall podium at the Nurburgring 24 Hours. 

The #99 BMW M4 GT3 also enjoyed a strong recovery, with a fourth-place finish coming after a lap-one spin from former British GT champion Dan Harper.

The opening few hours of the race produced frantic action similar to what you would expect in a sprint race, with crashes for numerous cars in the top SP9 class. 

This fate befell one of the early frontrunners, with the #911 Porsche 911 GT3 of Kevin Estre, Ayhancan Güven, Thomas Preining, and Matt Campbell sliding off the track in the early hours, shortly after followed into the barriers by the #64 Ford Mustang GT3 driven by Arjun Maini.

Rain played a part with showers cropping up frequently, causing teams to field a mixture of slicks, cut slicks, intermediate and wet tyres at any one point. 

Verstappen has stated his ambition to return to the Nurburgring 24 Hours next year, but conceded that this will depend on his F1 schedule.