Max Verstappen using genius trick at 24h Nurburgring that has left drivers speechless
Max Verstappen has been utilising a key technique while racing at the Nurburgring Nordschleife which has surprised senior sportscar drivers.
Verstappen entered the world of endurance racing last year during testing for a GT3 event, where he competed under the pseudonym 'Franz Hermann'.
He was able to obtain an FIA Platinum racing licence to compete at the Nurburgring Nordschleife, and won on his debut in a GT3 car in September.
In March, he took to the Nordschleife again, piloting the #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 car alongside team-mates Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon during the second round of the Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS).
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Though his team comfortably won the race, they were disqualified for using too many sets of tyres.
All that experience has been building up to the 24 Hours of Nurburgring proper, with Verstappen and his team qualifying in fourth place in the elite SP 9 Pro class on Friday.
The race got underway at 3pm local time on Saturday, with Verstappen driving the first stint of the race in the #3 car.
Fellow 24h Nurburgring driver Markus Winkelhock, who is competing in the SP-X class, has revealed how some drivers have marvelled at the way in which Verstappen has taken one of the most iconic corners on the Nordschleife circuit.
Flugplatz - turn nine - is a left-hander which is taken at near full throttle, with the track moving significantly uphill before the driver arrives at the turn.
Winkelhock told PlanetF1 how there is an accepted ideal way to take the turn among sportscar drivers - noting the speed at which Verstappen has learnt the technique in comparison to other racing drivers.
"F1 drivers are not used to this different speed difference in traffic with all these slow cars," the German said. "There are 160, 180 cars on track, right?
"Sometimes there's a speed difference of 80 kilometres per hour, or even more. To read and judge this traffic, all the GT3 drivers can gain and lose a lot of time in traffic.
"For example, if you approach Flugplatz, the worst thing you can do is stay behind a slow car and then start to accelerate towards Schwedenkreuz.
"It's more clever to back off, as an example, to back off and make a gap, and then exit Flugplatz with the overrun to overtake on the exit of Flugplatz. Many drivers who don't have the experience, they just stop behind the slow car and start to accelerate again.
"Max understands how to take the flow through the traffic. I watched the onboard from his second race, in the Mercedes, watching only his onboard.
"I was just watching him when he followed the Audi of Christopher Haase, and it was great... it was crazy to see the amount of experience he has. Really, really awesome."
Who else is competing in the 24 Hours of Nurburgring?
Alongside Verstappen and Winkelhock, Timo Glock is the only other current or former Formula 1 driver competing at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring this year.
READ MORE: Max Verstappen joined by two ex-F1 drivers in 24h Nurburgring as full 161-car entry list revealed
Glock, who drove for Toyota and Virgin during a five-season spell in F1 between 2008 and 2012, is driving the #69 McLaren 720S in the SP 9 Pro category.
Christopher Haase, who was Verstappen's nearest rival during his NLS outing, is also taking part.
The #1 BMW team, who are represented by last year's winners Augusto Farfus, Raffaele Marciello and Kelvin van der Linde, as well as Jordan Pepper, are among the favourites to win again this time around.
Topics: Max Verstappen, Formula 1
Ryan Smart