Verstappen’s Nurburgring rival scoffs at ‘laughable’ lap time debate
Max Verstappen made his GT3 racing debut alongside Chris Lulham at the Nurburgring.
Up by over a minute on his rivals at the Nürburgring as he made his GT3 debut, some on social media called up Max Verstappen’s victory as meaningless against amateurs.
But Nürburgring legend, Frank Stippler, who finished third behind the Dutchman and his teammate Chris Lulham, says that discussion is “laughable”.
Max Verstappen won on his GT3 debut
Verstappen contested his inaugural GT3 race at the ‘green hell’ on the weekend, behind the wheel of the #31 Ferrari 296 GT3 with British racer Lulham as his teammate for round nine of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie season.
The duo took the victory by 20 seconds, but the #31’s advantage was up to 62 seconds when Verstappen, who drove for the first two hours, handed the car over to Lulham for the final two hours.
Such was Verstappen’s pace that he never lapped above the eight-minute mark, while his fastest lap time was a 7:51.514, two seconds off the NLS lap record of 7:49.578.
“It’s really unbelievable what he has done! He just missed the lap record, but if he hadn’t had yellow flags in that second lap, I’m actually sure he would,” said Dutch driver Jeroem Bleekemolen to RacingNews365.
“He drove three to four or even five seconds away from real Nordschleife toppers every lap, such as Frank Stippler, and also the Aston Martin with one of the real heroes who also holds the track record (Christian Krognes).”
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But some on social media – and on this site – questioned it as the Dutchman was up against amateur and pro-amateur racers.
However, Stippler, who has contested the Nürburgring 24 Hours a whopping 25 times, and won it alongside factory-Audi drivers on four occasions, scoffed at that.
“As everyone knows, he is the best track driver in the world,” said Stippler, who competed in Sunday’s event at the wheel of a Ford Mustang GT3.
“That’s why I’m not surprised by his overall win. When you also combine that with a driver line-up of that calibre, winning is the only logical outcome.
“He’s arguably the best driver in the world, so I find all this discussion about his lap times absolutely laughable.
“In Formula 1, the others are missing something crucial, so why would that be different in GT3?
“That’s just crazy.”
The reigning F1 World Champion is now dreaming of competing in next year’s 24 Hour event.
“Of course, I would love to compete in the 24-hour race, whether that happens next year or later, but we still need more experience for that, of course,” said Verstappen.
“That’s a given, so hopefully, we can compete in more races next year.”
Next year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours takes place in May, between the Miami and Canadian F1 Grands Prix.
Meanwhile, next year marks the 50th anniversary of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie – the competition in which Verstappen is now a race winner – with 10 events scheduled over the course of the year.
Key among those is the ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers on April 18-19 – the same weekend as the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
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