Topics: Fan Reactions, Max Verstappen, Formula 1, Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen impressed fans with his qualifying time in his GT3 debut as he further demonstrated his driving skills go way beyond a Formula 1 car.
The Dutchman is currently third in the F1 Drivers' Championship and has recently notched up successive victories in Italy and Azerbaijan.
His latest win for the Red Bull driver means he is currently 69 points behind current leader Oscar Piastri with seven Grand Prix and three sprint races to come this year.
The four-time world champion remains very much an outsider for the title, but wins in the last two Grand Prix have meant he cannot be completely discounted.
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It would need McLaren duo Piastri and Lando Norris to have several more disappointing weekends on track, like it was in Baku for the pair, and for Verstappen to capitalise to put him properly back in contention.
The next Grand Prix on the calendar is in Singapore next weekend around the Marina Bay Circuit, so with no F1 race to take part in this weekend, it means Verstappen is free to try his hand behind the wheel of a car in another motorsport discipline.
Earlier this month, Verstappen drove a detuned Porsche Cayman GT4 car around Germany's Nurburgring circuit.
The 27-year-old took part in order to earn his GT3 racing licence, enabling him to compete in sanctioned races.
And following on from this, he is this weekend competing in the Nurburgring Endurance Series, driving an Emil Frey Ferrari 296 alongside British racer Chris Lulham.
The four-hour race takes place today around the notorious Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit, which spans 12.9 miles, and last held an F1 Grand Prix in 1976.
That race is best known for Niki Lauda's crash when his Ferrari span, hit the fencing and careered back onto the track as it burst into flames, which Lauda miraculously survived despite being heavily burned.
Verstappen qualified for the race in an impressive third place, just over three seconds behind the pole time.
The Dutchman, who also experienced traffic on his best lap, said: "It's not easy to time your run well here.
"On my last lap, I ran into way too much traffic to make a good lap.
"But everything is going really well. The tyres are good, so I believe that normally in the race everything should still be possible."
And fans on social media were very impressed with Verstappen's efforts around the difficult and tight track that is the Nordschleife.
One wrote: "Talk about going in at the deep end. First official GT3 race at the Nordschleife, what a hero."
Another posted: "The standards set by him in terms of his adaptability are so high that we are disappointed by a P3 in quali."
One fan wrote: "The biggest take from qualifying was lap 1, when everyone got mostly a clean lap, in challenging & unknown conditions Max was 24 seconds ahead.
"If that’s lap 1 of a race, even a 4 hour, it’s a lot to recover here. Incredible to be so confident."
And another fan said: "Even with the traffic was great result by him."
