‘One and a half laps’ – Huge Verstappen prediction after crushing Nürburgring win

Destroying the competition on his GT3 debut at the Nürburgring, the “math” says Max Verstappen could win the Nürburgring 24 Hours by a whopping “one and a half laps” if he competes in the iconic race next year.

Verstappen contested his inaugural GT3 race at the ‘green hell’ on the weekend, behind the wheel of the #31 Ferrari 296 GT3 with British racer Chris Lulham as his teammate for round nine of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie season.

‘Do the math, and you’re one and a half laps ahead’

The duo took the victory by 20 seconds, but the #31’s advantage was up to 62 seconds when Verstappen, who drove for the first two hours, handed the car over to Lulham for the final two hours.

The reigning F1 World Champion is now dreaming of competing in next year’s 24 Hour event.

“Of course, I would love to compete in the 24-hour race, whether that happens next year or later, but we still need more experience for that, of course,” said Verstappen.

“That’s a given, so hopefully, we can compete in more races next year.”

Dutch racing driver and pundit Jeroen Bleekemolen has warned Verstappen’s GT3 rivals that they could be in for a brutal defeat.

“If he is going to drive the 24 hours, that will be nice,” he told RacingNews365.

“If he has a good line-up, do the math… He was one minute ahead after two hours of racing. Do the math, and you’re one and a half laps ahead of a 24-hour race.

“That’s how good he was! I enjoyed it, it was a top race.”

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The 43-year-old was impressed with Verstappen’s performance with the Dutchman’s fastest lap a 7:51.514, two seconds off the NLS lap record of 7:49.578.

“It’s really unbelievable what he has done! He just missed the lap record, but if he hadn’t had yellow flags in that second lap, I’m actually sure he would,” he said.

“But otherwise… Through traffic, not with the best conditions, he continuously drove well under eight minutes.

“He drove three to four or even five seconds away from real Nordschleife toppers every lap, such as Frank Stippler, and also the Aston Martin with one of the real heroes who also holds the track record (Christian Krognes).

“The field is not that wide. If you drive the 24 Hours, there are 35 GT3s competing here, including all the factory drivers. But that Stippler and Krognes participated… These are guys who normally race at the front. Then it doesn’t matter that much.

“It was just bizarre. Verstappen was faster than the rest, better than the rest.”

Bleekemolen wasn’t the only one impressed with five-time Nürburgring 24 Hours winner Timo Bernhard declaring Verstappen was so good that he was “emotional”.

“Hats off to Max Verstappen to tackle the Nordschleife, and I like this,” the German driver said during the weekend’s broadcast of the 6 Hours of Fiji. “Actually, the platform which gets the most attention, is Formula 1, for sure.

“When they try other disciplines, you mentioned Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, we shared the car for three years. We had great fun.

“These are great race car drivers, and they like to experience other things. And endurance racing, it has so much to offer. So you see, I’m emotional, it’s great racing, I love it.

“It’s great. I don’t know him personally, but hearing things about him, for sure, he’s a racer. And I liked it, the way he tackled [the race]. He has a huge talent, as we know.

“Nordschleife is something special, and he really honours the place also, that’s something I cherish, I like.”

Next year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours takes place in May, between the Miami and Canadian F1 Grands Prix.

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