Verstappen Mercedes-AMG Disqualified for Tire Rules Breach

Photo: NLS

Max Verstappen, Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon have been disqualified from their victory in the opening Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie race of the season after their Winward Racing-run Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo used too many sets of tires.

The Verstappen Racing entry had finished almost a minute clear of its rivals, having battled the Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Christopher Haase in the early stages of the race, to seemingly give four-time Formula 1 champion Verstappen a second NLS win in his second top-class start.

However, approximately two hours after the race’s conclusion, the trio were disqualified having breached the category’s rules concerning tire use.

It was found that the Verstappen Racing car had used seven different sets of tires during the race day when regulations only permit six sets for each crew.

Verstappen, Juncadella and Gounon were therefore disqualified and the victory instead was awarded to the No. 99 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Dan Harper and Jordan Pepper.

Winward team principal Christian Hohenadel said that “the disqualification hurts.”

“Unfortunately, a mistake was made within our team, which forced race control to disqualify the winning car retrospectively,” he added.

“It was our first outing as the Mercedes-AMG Performance Team on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. I would like to apologize to everyone who was cheering us on.

“We will now analyze the day thoroughly, meticulously prepare for the upcoming races, and work with full concentration towards the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring.”

The ROWE BMW that inherited the spoils faced a nervy conclusion to the race as Pepper had the No. 44 Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Tim Heinemann and Sven Mueller right on his tail in the closing laps, and crossed the line just one second adrift in what turned out to be the battle for victory.

Source: Sports Car 365