Max Verstappen pulled nearly half a minute clear of the sister Winward Mercedes in the Nurburgring 24 Hours lead as he completed his night-driving stint.
The four-time Formula 1 world champion contributed a double stint as the event passed its halfway point, and extended his car’s advantage from five seconds to a little under 28s by consistently pulling away from the chasing Maxime Martin during the second hour of that shift. At times Verstappen was setting the fastest sector times of the entire race so far, despite it being his first proper real-world night racing stint.
Both cars pitted around 4am local time with 11 hours of racing to go, with Martin staying in the #80 car while Verstappen handed back to Jules Gounon.
The first half of Verstappen’s night stint had included contact between the two Mercedes as Martin’s team-mate Maro Engel tried to regain the lead from Verstappen amid traffic. Both emerged unscathed.
The #99 BMW currently driven by Kelvin van der Linde remained third in the two Mercedes’ wake at the 13-hour point.
