Verstappen and rivals tasked with taking on challenging weather conditions at the Nordschleife

This 24h Nurburgring weekend was far from straightforward in terms of the weather. It rained on Thursday night, and some brief showers also arrived during Top Qualifying on Friday to cause the drivers some headaches on the long circuit.

Following the conclusion of today's warm-up session, where Jules Gounon was in action for Verstappen Racing at the Nordschleife, the 24h Nurburgring is set to begin at 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT). According to Weather.com, conditions at the start of the race are expected to be mostly cloudy with track temperatures around 9°C. There is also a 14% chance of rain.

During the opening hours of the race, the chance of rain is expected to increase to 24%. According to Weather.com, showers are first forecast to arrive at 19:00 local time, with a 48% chance of rain over the following two hours. By 21:00, the probability of rain drops back to 20%. Sunset at the Nordschleife is expected at 21:14 this evening.

During the early evening hours, there will only be a slight chance of rain. Temperatures are expected to drop to 4°C, while the sky will remain mostly cloudy. From 02:00 until 07:00 on Sunday, there will again be a 20% chance of rain.

A few showers are forecast for the early hours of Sunday morning, between 08:00 and 11:00, with the chance of rain increasing to 33%. The race is then expected to finish under cloudy conditions at the Nordschleife, although there will still be a 20–25% chance of further rain reaching the circuit. By the end of the race, temperatures are forecast to rise back to around 10°C.

On Thursday, Max Verstappen experienced driving his Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo car at night on the famous circuit. Chatting to Mercedes, the four-time Formula 1 world champion said: "A lot of changing conditions, and for me the first time in the night in probably the worst possible conditions with the rain, the fog coming in. But at least I got a good first idea of what to expect potentially in the race as well, so that was good.

After Lucas Auer and Verstappen completed their tasks in Top Qualifying 1 and 2, Dani Juncadella finished the job in Top Qualifying 3 by securing fourth place. The Spaniard will also start today’s race at 15:00.

After the session, he commented yesterday: "It was a very good day, I think, because ideally you want to start in the first five positions for the race, and we are P4. Of course, you always want to be on pole, but P4 is a great starting position for what is a very long race."

Cars begin entering the starting grid at 12:45 local time (11:45 GMT) this Saturday. The formation lap will then get underway at 14:40 local time. The 24h Nurburgring is set to begin at 15:00 (14:00 GMT).