Verstappen secures Top Qualifying 3 spot for his team at the Norschleife

After Lucas Auer finished inside the top 20 in Top Qualifying 1, it was Verstappen's turn to secure a place inside the top seven in TQ2 to be able to compete in the final qualifying session of the 24h Nurburgring later this Friday.

The session began with an incident involving one of Verstappen's rivals, Maro Engel, who hit the barrier after running onto the grass while the Dutchman was setting purple sectors. Because the incident happened behind Verstappen on the road, it did not affect the #3 Mercedes-AMG driver, who went on to set an 8:14.4 and take the provisional lead.

The removal of Engel's #80 Mercedes-AMG car from the track meant that during the majority of the session, drivers were unable to set lap times. Verstappen re-entered the track with three and a half minutes to go in Top Qualifying 2. On his second run, Verstappen set a 8:11.614, which was enough to secure a place in Top Qualifying 3. However, this also means that he will not drive the Mercedes car in the final session of today.

Verstappen was happy after securing a place for his team in Top Qualifying 3 at the 24h Nurburgring. Speaking to Mercedes, he said: "Yeah, I mean, I felt comfortable in the car. Of course, we were targeting to get to Top Qualifying 3, which of course is not easy with the competition out there. It's super tough. You know, a lot of fast cars around, but yeah, we just managed to sneak in. So yeah, the final lap was just good enough. It was nice. I mean, luckily it was dry. The car felt all right, and we managed to sneak in, so that was the target."