Max puts Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing on pole for NLS2: 'Feel is good'
Published on 21 March 2026 by Florence Cobben
Max, driving for Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, secured pole position ahead of the second round of the Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS2). Max, sharing the car with specialists Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon, took advantage of the 90-minute qualifying session to practice pitstops and test driver swaps. Max then took over for the closing phases of the session, setting the fastest time and securing pole.
In the Mercedes-AMG GT3-car, Max clocked a best lap of 7:51.751 on the 24 km Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit, finishing two seconds clear of his nearest competitors – the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II from Scherer Sport PHX, and the BMW M4 GT3 Evo from Rowe Racing op P3.
“Here you always need to get lucky with traffic, and that wasn’t so bad in my lap”, Max conceded after qualifying was finished. Since Verstappen Racing is competing in the fastest SP9 Pro category with 26 competitors, the team had to navigate past many slower cars in the 132-car grid.
“The feel of the car is good, and we’re here to gain more experience. Yesterday we had a good test day, and today we could practice a couple of pitstops with driver changes.” Looking ahead, May also shared his excitement for the upcoming Nürburgring 24 Hours, in which he will compete in May: “I enjoy driving GT3 cars. I’ve watched many 24-hour races, and this year I’m competing myself. It’s always a special experience to drive on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.”
The Verstappen Racing team, driving under #3, will start from pole position today at 12.00 pm in the four-hour race. Viaplay will broadcast the race live, while Team Redline will also track Max’s performance via a Twitch livestream starting at 11:30 am, featuring live onboard footage and a giveaway of ten caps signed by Max: https://www.twitch.tv/teamredline/
Max Verstappen Shop is exclusively launching a Nürburgring NLS GT3 collection to commemorate the event. The collection includes a T-shirt, hoodie, and scale models (1:18 and 1:43) of Max’s NLS2 Mercedes-AMG GT3 car. See: https://store.verstappen.com/c-11093
