Nurburgring 24 Hours, 21.00-00.00: Battle between #3 and #80 for the lead

Published on 17 May 2026 by Misha van der Kroon

During the night-time hours at the Nürburgring, an exciting battle develops between the #3 Verstappen Racing and the #80 Mercedes-AMG Team RAVENOL. After three hours of fighting and swapping positions, the #80 heads into Sunday in the lead.

On lap 41, Lucas Auer comes into the pits for a stop, and the #80 sister car, Mercedes-AMG Team RAVENOL, dives into the pit lane at the same moment. Upon exiting the pits, Auer retains the lead ahead of Luca Stolz, although the gap is minimal. After seven hours of racing, Stolz, in the #80 car, manages to overtake the #3 Verstappen Racing for the lead. From there, the gap remains virtually unchanged, hovering around 3.5 seconds. The advantage over the car in third place stands at more than two minutes.

On lap 50, the two leaders head into the pits once again. This time, Verstappen Racing performs a driver change. Dani Juncadella, the Spaniard who started the race, begins his second stint. As he exits the pit lane, he trails the #80 by just two seconds. For a brief period, the gap increases to ten seconds, but suddenly drops to only a few tenths. At the start of lap 53, Juncadella gets a strong run along the straight, drawing alongside Stolz on the start-finish line. Into turn one, he brakes later than the German driver, reclaiming the lead after more than eight hours and twenty minutes of racing. The gap between the two Mercedes-AMG GT3s remains tiny. At one point the difference grows to just over a second, but the #80 soon closes back to within a second of the #3 Verstappen Racing.

Right at midnight, Stolz retakes the lead from Juncadella, after which the gap remains only a few tenths. In third place runs the #99 Rowe Racing car, although it trails the leaders by almost four and a half minutes.

Nürburgring 24 Hours - Classification after 7 hours, at 22:00
Nürburgring 24 Hours - Classification after 9 hours, at 00:00