Max Verstappen’s weekend starts (a bit) uphill
The latest, unfortunate, outings at the Nurburgring Nordschleife make the qualifying process of Max Verstappen and his team for the 24 Hours next weekend (a little) uphill. The Dutch driver, who in the Eifel marathon will share the seat of his Mercedes-AMG GT3 with teammates Lucas Auer, Daniel Juncadella, and Jules Gounon, has not achieved significant results and therefore will be forced to go through the elimination sessions before knowing the starting position in the race: an aspect not to be underestimated, because while it is true that in such a long race qualifying always has a relative importance, it is also true that getting stuck in traffic on such a demanding and tricky track is never advisable, at least for those with high-ranking ambitions.
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The qualifying format of the 24 Hours of Nurburgring
The qualifying for the 24 Hours of Nurburgring on May 16 and 17 includes an initial phase in three sessions – called Q1, Q2, and Q3 – which serve to establish the starting position of the crews in the lower categories compared to the one (SP9) in which Max Verstappen races. At the end of the three elimination sessions, used by the top teams as mere free practice since there is no obligation to set a valid time to advance to the final phase, the Race Direction actually draws up the starting grid from 50th to the last (161st) position. For the top teams, like the Verstappen.com Racing team, participation in Q2, scheduled at night, is mandatory to obtain the pass for the race: otherwise, exclusion from the rest of the weekend is foreseen.
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Once the group is filtered and the first 49 teams identified (some of which qualify automatically for the final phase), the actual qualifying, called Top Qualifying, takes place: this phase is scheduled for Friday and is structured in three direct elimination sessions (TQ1, TQ2, and TQ3) very similar to those Max knows quite well racing in the Formula 1 World Championship. It is in these sessions that Verstappen’s crew will have to fight from the bottom up, avoiding being involved in a painful early elimination. This is not the case for the five teams considered “seeded” based on the results at the start of the NLS championship, which instead have direct access to TQ3.
Max Verstappen on track from the first qualifying sessions
The four-time F1 world champion’s team does not have great results to boast of in this regard: in March the crew was disqualified due to the irregular use of an extra set of tires over the weekend, while subsequent outings saw the race canceled following the tragic accident in which Juha Miettinen lost his life and the retirement due to technical problems from the race the following day. The regulations also provide that those who drive in TQ1 cannot then participate in the next elimination session, which also leaves some strategic uncertainty regarding Max Verstappen’s turn: is it better to have him drive immediately to avoid starting too far back, or wait for TQ3 and the fight for pole position with the obvious risk of being eliminated immediately? We just have to wait for Friday’s Top Qualifying to find out…
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