LIVE | Verstappen takes on NLS4 at the Nurburgring Nordschleife

This weekend, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was meant to take place, but due to the ongoing Middle East turmoil, the race was cancelled.

This means that four-time world champion Verstappen can take part in his weekend's ADAC 24h Nurburgring Qualifiers together with the two NLS races. The Dutchman's teammate this weekend is Lucas Auer, as Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon are in Imola for the first round of the World Endurance Championship season.

After a test session on Friday, qualifying for NLS4 took place earlier this morning.

Verstappen finished originally in sixth place after setting a 8:13.012 with his Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo car.

However, after Auer made contact with a Porsche in the session, they received a grid penalty.

The stewards noted that the driver of car #941 remained on the racing line and was unaware of the faster-approaching #03. They also recorded that the driver of car #03 attempted to exploit a gap but misjudged the move, later apologising after his stint.

On that basis, they deemed a three-place grid drop for the next race to be an appropriate penalty, which means that Verstappen and Auer will start from P9.

"The Stewards felt that a drop of 3 grid positions for the next race the car will participate is the appropriate penalty," the stewards wrote.

The session begins at 17:00 local time (16:00 GMT).