Max Verstappen has been stripped of his race win at the Nürburgring Nordschleife after his team were found to have breached tyre regulations.
The Dutch F1 superstar was competing in the GT3 class with Winward on Sunday (AEDT) alongside teammates Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon.
The trio claimed a comfortable win in the four-hour event, although their celebrations came to an abrupt end as officials informed the team of a glaring error they had made.
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As per the rules of the event, only six sets of tyres could be used. Winward used seven.
The technical breach had not been identified during the race but was recognised when officials scanned the barcode logs post-race.
“The disqualification is tough to take,” Winward boss Christian Hohenadel told Motorsport.com.
Max Verstappen poses with his teammates. Twitter
“Unfortunately, we made an internal error that left the stewards with no choice but to exclude the winning car.
“It was our first outing as a full Mercedes-AMG Performance Team on the Nordschleife, and I want to apologise to all the fans who were cheering us on.
“We’ll analyse every single process today, learn from it, and come back even stronger for the 24 hours.”
Mercedes-AMG’s customer racing chief Stefan Wendl later confirmed via a statement that the tyre error had occurred during qualifying.
“The error occurred during qualifying, when multiple driver and tyre changes were practised,” he said.
“The disappointment is all the greater as a behind-the-scenes mistake led to disqualification, which hurts.”
Max Verstappen of Oracle Red Bull Racing participates in Formula 1 Pre-Season Testing. NurPhoto via Getty Images
With Winward disqualified from the race, Rowe Racing were awarded the victory.
It is not the first time Verstappen has driven in a GT3 race, having made his debut in the sport last November driving a Ferrari 296.
The Formula 1 star has a desire to drive in the 24-hour Le Mans race in June.
Until then, he will focus on his season for Red Bull in F1.