A right-rear driveshaft failure with less than three and a half hours remaining robbed Max Verstappen’s No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of what looked like a certain victory at the 2026 Nürburgring 24 Hours. His Winward Racing sister car, the No. 80, inherited the lead and never looked back, delivering Mercedes-AMG its first overall win at the Nordschleife in a decade.
Maro Engel, Fabian Schiller, Maxime Martin, and Luca Stolz took the checkered flag Sunday afternoon in a race that will be remembered less for their triumph than for the gut-punch that handed it to them.
The No. 3 car had been the dominant machine all weekend. Verstappen, the four-time Formula 1 champion moonlighting in endurance racing, stretched the lead to 45 seconds during a monster four-hour double stint through the night. It was his first-ever night driving in endurance competition, and he handed the car to Dani Juncadella in what should have been a comfortable cruise to the finish.
It wasn’t.
Juncadella had barely left the pits when an ABS warning lit up his dashboard. The team made the call to keep racing. Two laps later, the driveshaft let go.
The No. 80 Mercedes, with Engel behind the wheel at the critical moment, sailed into the lead unchallenged. Engel and Martin now sit atop the 2026 GT Challenge standings following their victory at the Bathurst 12 Hours back in March. Two marquee endurance wins in a single season is no small thing, even if this one came with an asterisk the size of a driveshaft housing.
Behind them, the field told its own story of attrition. The No. 84 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 clawed back to second after suffering a first-lap puncture that ended its victory bid before the first hour was done. An Aston Martin Vantage GT3 completed the podium, ahead of the No. 99 BMW M4 GT3 EVO.
Then there was the BMW M3 Touring. The wagon that the internet once treated as a punchline qualified fifth and finished fifth after running with the overall contenders for the full 24 hours. It’s no longer a joke. It’s a legitimate Nordschleife weapon wearing a family-car body.
Porsche’s day was even uglier than Verstappen’s. The No. 911 factory entry was wiped out when Kevin Estre hit oil, one of multiple frontrunners eliminated in the opening hours. The No. 24 Porsche 911 GT3R salvaged a top-six result with Laurens Heinrich aboard, but that’s cold comfort for a manufacturer that once owned this race.
Mercedes needed this win. A decade-long drought at the Green Hell is an eternity for a brand that pours factory resources into GT3 racing. They got the result, but the team celebrating on the podium knows it was the second-fastest car in its own garage.
Verstappen proved something important in his Nordschleife debut. The raw pace was there. The night driving was there. The reliability wasn’t. Welcome to endurance racing, where the stopwatch means nothing if the parts don’t hold.
For the No. 80 crew, none of that matters. The trophy doesn’t come with a footnote. Engel, Schiller, Martin, and Stolz executed a clean 24 hours, kept their car in contention, and were there when opportunity arrived at the door.
That’s the entire game at the Nürburgring — survive, stay close, and be ready when the car ahead breaks. They were ready.
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