– Red Bull driver Max Verstappen made a lasting impression at the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring: The four-time world champion came, saw, and almost won. Only a defective driveshaft dashed the dream of overall victory at his debut shortly before the end.
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“Incredible what he did there,” Ralf Schumacher acknowledges in the current Sky podcast Backstage Boxengasse. “Of course, he took full risks. I think no one else dares to do that because he already had a few actions there, overtaking on the grass and so on.”
The former Formula 1 driver describes Verstappen’s performance as “unimaginable” and draws a comparison to his Mercedes teammates: “He was significantly faster than everyone else, except Maro Engel, who fairly could keep the same pace, but Lucas Auer and Daniel Juncadella really looked old against him.”
For comparison: Verstappen drove his fastest lap of the race in 8:12.818 minutes, teammate Auer needed 8:16.355 minutes. “That’s quite a gap,” says Schumacher, noting that weather conditions and yellow flags influence lap times.
Verstappen win would have been “really gigantic”
It was still thanks to the Dutchman that the Winward Mercedes with starting number 3 was leading on Sunday morning with about 30 seconds ahead and the overall victory was already in sight when the driveshaft failed and tore the AMG quartet out of the fight for the overall win.
“I would have wished it for him. That would have been really gigantic,” says Schumacher, who explicitly praises Verstappen: “Great that he did that. It was fantastic what it meant for the 24 hours at the Nürburgring and motorsport in Germany. So many additional fans, that was really great.”
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In the end, Maro Engel, Fabian Schiller, Luca Stolz, and Maxime Martin took the win in the sister car with starting number 80. “Of course, I also wish it for Maro, whom I have known forever,” says the Sky expert, who has raced against Engel in the DTM. “And Mercedes, who also had a long dry spell.”
“Showed that he is a Formula 1 driver for a reason”
“Too bad for Max, but he was fast enough and I think he showed everyone up there that he is a Formula 1 driver for a reason,” says Schumacher, who at the same time hopes that the “pretty tedious discussions” about the importance of Formula 1 will now come to an end.
“So I think some people have already realized that Formula 1 really has a completely different status in motorsport.” However, the fastest race lap was secured by Abt-Lamborghini driver Luca Engstler, who needed only 8:08.758 minutes for his fastest lap on Sunday morning.
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David Schumacher, who started in the Ford Mustang GT3 of the HRT team, was less lucky. “He was registered on two cars, but neither of them made it,” reports father Ralf Schumacher. “That’s the Nordschleife, that can happen.”
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