Verstappen at Nurburgring 24H qualifiers: What you need to know

This weekend's Nurburgring 24 Hours qualifiers will mark the latest step in Formula 1 star Max Verstappen's Nordschleife journey.

And you can follow his weekend - whether through broadcast feed or the onboard from Verstappen's car - on The Race's YouTube channel or website.

Here is what you should know prior to Verstappen's biggest Nordschleife event yet.

What is the event?

The '24h Nurburgring Qualifiers' are a dress rehearsal event for the 24-hour marathon, and despite the name, don't actually determine the grid for that race - though can contribute towards a car's automatic passage to the final segment of qualifying at the actual Nurburgring 24 Hours.

This weekend includes two four-hour races, both with relevant qualifying sessions, that will constitute the nominal fourth and fifth rounds of the Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) - in actuality, the third and fourth, as the season opener had been cancelled.

The Saturday race will run into the evening, whereas the Sunday race will be an afternoon event. Sunday will also feature an extra 'top qualifying' session to determine pole for that day's race.

Like the 24-hour race, this event uses a slightly different format to the previous NLS races. The Grand Prix circuit is incorporated (with the Mullenbachschleife portion that includes the Dunlop hairpin, but without the 'Mercedes-Arena' section at the start of the GP lap), bringing the total lap distance to over 25km.

What is the schedule?

All times local (CEST, GMT+2)

Friday
12.15-2.15pm Test session

Saturday
8.30-10am Qualifying
5.30-9.30pm Race (NLS4)

Sunday
8.15-9.45am Qualifying
10.40-11.40am Top qualifying
1-5pm Race (NLS5)

The to-do list

Vestappen has described his GT exploits so far as "really fun", and said "every time I jumped out of the car I was smiling". But do not confuse that for this just being an enjoyable side-gig.

"As a team, of course, the target is to win the 24," he said. "That's what we are preparing for, and that's why these races are great to do."

Watch Max Verstappen's onboard live on The Race!

Verstappen doesn't do things by halves and that makes the NLS races and this qualifier proper recces for him, his team and co-drivers. He even confessed to feeling like a "rookie" at the driver swap last time out: "You need to help your team-mate getting strapped in - I never really did any of that."

Extensive Nordschleife experience in sim racing has prepared Verstappen very well in learning the circuit and the real-world exploits have unsurprisingly started filling in the major gaps. After driving a Ferrari last year, he now has a Mercedes to get used to.

And he is not pretending that two races there gives him everything he needs for his first 24-hour race, which is why this extra outing is so useful.

"I still have a lot of ideas that I want to try," he said. "I still need to drive maybe a little bit in the wet hopefully, dark as well.

"So I hope to get those things in before the 24."

Verstappen's previous Nordschleife record

Apart from countless virtual hours and numerous virtual wins at the track - which Verstappen has always emphasised as being relevant and high-quality preparation - the four-time F1 champion is increasingly building up a strong real-life CV at the legendary venue.

He debuted in GT4 competition in NLS7 last year, immediately catching the eye in qualifying as part of his permit-securing exercise, then dominated NLS9 in GT3 with his sim racer team-mate Chris Lulham.

The second attempt, at the NLS2 this year, also yielded an on-the-road win. Verstappen had lost the lead from pole but regained it by the end of his stint, then nursed the car home after his team-mates ably protected and reinforced the entry's control over the race - though a post-race disqualification for a procedural infringement means the win didn't go into the history books.

The team behind 'Verstappen Racing'

Verstappen's Nurburgring entry is part of a significant expansion in his own Verstappen Racing team's programme.

A switch to Mercedes and a bigger GT3 programme has grown Verstappen Racing's real-world presence, which already included the GT World Challenge and even the DTM, supporting Verstappen Racing driver Thierry Vermeulen.

And it has taken over the prominent Redline sim racing team that Verstappen's previously been part of, too.

But Verstappen Racing isn't yet its own team. Verstappen himself knows how specialist the organisations running GT cars for many years are, and has tapped into that for his branded entry. Emil Frey Racing has run Verstappen-entered Ferraris elsewhere but at the Nurburgring it is Winward Racing tasked with running its Mercedes-AMG GT3.

This does not guarantee success. As evidenced by the aforementioned disqualification last time out, specifically due to a mix-up with how many sets of tyres were used across qualifying and the race.

"Probably it puts the team on point; maybe it needed that a little bit," Verstappen said of the error.

Who are the opposition?

Due to the event's status as a 'rehearsal' for the 24 hours, Verstappen's team will face significantly beefed-up opposition in the headliner SP9/GT3 class.

That extends to both the Mercedes camp itself (the #80 car featuring household name Maro Engel) and other manufacturers' representatives - like the #911 Manthey for Porsche, #99 Rowe for BMW, #84 Red Bull ABT for Lamborghini and others, all with factory GT3 aces in their rosters.

DTM champions Mirko Bortolotti (Lamborghini) and Thomas Preining (Porsche), Porsche Hypercar driver Matt Campbell, British Touring Car champion Jake Hill (Porsche) and sometime Formula E/Hypercar driver, and the reigning champion in IMSA's top GT category, Alexander Sims are a few more of the names that should ring a bell across the SP9 driver roster.

Who is Verstappen's team-mate?

A Mercedes-AMG factory driver with an extensive history with the manufacturer, Lucas Auer is best known in some motorsport circles as the nephew of 10-time grand prix winner Gerhard Berger. But emphasising that connection undersells the scope of the 31-year-old's own achievements.

Once a prominent driver on the junior ladder to F1 (Auer was one place behind Verstappen in European Formula 3, in Verstappen's sole year as a single-seater junior), Auer became a DTM mainstay - with Mercedes for all but one season, as the series pivoted from its bespoke silhouette touring cars to GT3 machinery.

The DTM title has eluded him so far - he was a handful of corners away in 2025 - but other accolades have piled up, including a GT World Challenge Europe Sprint title and a Daytona 24 Hours class win.

He was briefly a Force India F1 tester in 2017 and a Red Bull junior two years later, though any chance of getting into F1 with the energy drinks giant was soon deemed by Helmut Marko to be "too lengthy an experiment".

It's just Auer and Verstappen this weekend, but for the proper 24 Hours itself, Jules Gounon and Dani Juncadella will join the line-up.