Max Verstappen remains undefeated in the N\u00fcrburgring Endurance Series. In the second round of the N\u00fcrburgring Endurance Series NLS, which was the first race of the season due to the cancellation of round 1, the Dutchman, along with Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon, prevailed in his first outing in the Mercedes-AMG GT3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite facing much tougher competition than in their debut, the trio controlled the race for long stretches and ultimately won by a margin of nearly 60 seconds over the ROWE BMW #99 driven by Jordan Pepper and Dan Harper. Third place went to the Falken Porsche #44 driven by Tim Heinemann and Sven M\u00fcller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starting from pole position, Verstappen lost the lead as early as the first lap. On the D\u00f6ttinger H\u00f6he, Christopher Haase in the Scherer Audi #16 overtook him and initially took the lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the ensuing laps, the pair engaged in an intense duel and quickly pulled away from the rest of the field. Haase remained in the lead for much of the first stint before Verstappen regained the lead with a decisive maneuver in the Tiergarten area shortly before the first pit stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the driver change, the Audi could no longer keep up with the pace of the leaders, which was also attributed to the team's lesser GT3 experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the middle of the race, a close battle developed between the leading Mercedes and the ROWE BMW. Dan Harper, in particular, was able to make up a lot of time during this phase and put pressure on Jules Gounon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, an incident decided the further course: While attempting to take the lead, contact was made with a lapped Porsche Cayman. The race stewards then imposed a penalty lap on the BMW, costing valuable seconds and significantly reducing their chances of victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the final pit stop, Verstappen took the wheel again and entered the final phase of the race with a comfortable lead. He controlled the proceedings with a gap of over 40 seconds until the finish line and didn't let anything slip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Falken-Porsche #44 staged a strong comeback. After qualifying outside the top 10, Tim Heinemann and Sven M\u00fcller steadily worked their way up the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the closing stages, Heinemann first overtook the Black Falcon Porsche #48 and then set his sights on the second-place BMW. In the end, however, Jordan Pepper managed to hold on to second place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Behind the podium, the Black Falcon Porsche, the Kondo Ferrari #45, and the Walkenhorst Aston Martin rounded out the top six. The Scherer Audi, which had led for much of the race, finished seventh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jens Klingmann and Ugo de Wilde brought the vehicle to 13th place, albeit with a significant gap to the leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even in the second race, it's clear: Max Verstappen is quickly finding his way around the Nordschleife. Despite stronger competition and intense duels, the Dutchman once again prevailed \u2013 thanks to consistent performance, flawless strategy, and strong teamwork.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Max Verstappen seems to feel right at home on the N\u00fcrburgring-Nordschleife. Even in his second GT3 outing, the Formula 1 World Champion left no doubt about his speed and once again caused a stir in the Green Hell.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[1471,630,1695,1964,1459,1673,1665,1672,1461,1463,603,661,1586],"photographer":[],"class_list":["post-20692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-amg","tag-bmw","tag-daniel-juncadella","tag-falken","tag-gt3","tag-jules-gounon","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mercedes","tag-nls","tag-nordschleife","tag-nuerburgring","tag-porsche","tag-rowe","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"yoast_head":"\n