Max Verstappen’s participation in the 24 Hours of Nurburgring this past weekend continues to resonate in motorsport. After the race, Maro Engel, winner of the event at the iconic Nordschleife-Nurburgring circuit, which is over 20 km long, highlighted the intense duel he had with the four-time Formula 1 world champion during the night and said he enjoyed every moment of the battle.
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The German praised the performance of the Red Bull Racing F1 driver and also highlighted the impact Verstappen had on this year’s event. According to Engel, the Dutchman’s presence helped further increase the international visibility of the traditional German race.
Even with his team’s victory, Engel did not have a quiet weekend and went through tense moments. After making a mistake during the Top Qualifying session on Friday and apologizing to the team, the driver quickly recovered in Saturday’s race, advancing to second position just behind the Mercedes-AMG GT3 #3 of Verstappen Racing.
On social media, a discussion between Engel and Verstappen on X, which took place last year, resurfaced. Despite speculation about a possible bad atmosphere between the two, the German driver assured that it never existed: “I have to say I really enjoyed the battle with Max. It was a lot of fun to see him pushing the Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the limit at Nordschleife during the night, and I think it was the same for him,” he told GPblog.
Engel, now a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Nurburgring after also winning in 2016 with the Black Falcon Mercedes SLS, made a point of highlighting Verstappen’s level: “It was special to see Max competing here and, obviously, he did an incredible job,” he said. The German also revealed his feelings during the night stints: “I was smiling inside the car while we were driving. I was having a lot of fun.”
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Images of the battle between the two quickly went viral on social media. Engel believes Verstappen played an important role in increasing the audience present at the circuit: “It’s amazing to see that. Last year we had 280,000 spectators here and this year we filled it with more than 350,000, largely thanks to Max,” he added.
The driver also commented that the teams experienced the battle more tensely than the drivers themselves: “I think we enjoyed it more inside the car. The team was probably a bit more stressed and I think they were happy when we slowed down the pace of that battle a bit, but these are the moments a driver lives for. Racing at night there is something special,” he concluded.
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport was still dreaming of a one-two finish between cars #3 and #80, something that would have represented the brand’s best result since 2016. However, a technical problem in the Verstappen Racing Mercedes ended the chances of an even better result. The drive shaft failure caused additional damage to the car, which returned to the track only in the final laps after repairs made by the team.
