Max Verstappen‘s foray into the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) has taken a sour turn after his team was disqualified and stripped of their victory on Sunday. The annual endurance racing championship is held in Germany at the famous Nürburgring racetrack.
The event was moved to this weekend to fit in with the Formula One schedule due to a break between the Chinese and Japan Grand Prix. It allowed Verstappen to compete in the GT3 class alongside teammates Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella, driving a Mercedes featuring Red Bull livery run by the Winyard team.
Max Verstappen and his team were disqualified. Image: Getty/Red Bull
Verstappen initially helped his team win the second race by a full minute. But officials discovered after the race that Verstappen’s team had used seven sets of tires – a breach of the rules that state only six are permitted.
The technical commission discovered the breach during a post-race scan of the car’s barcode logs. There’s a strict zero tolerance policy for rule breaches in the NLS, meaning the only option was disqualification.
Max Verstappen looks on during the Chinese Grand Prix.
(NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“The disqualification is tough to take,” Winward team principal Christian Hohenadel told Motorsport.com. “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.”
Max Verstappen without any luck to start 2026
Dan Harper and Jordan Pepper of Rowe Racing were elevated to the victory after Wynyard’s disqualification. Tim Heinemann and Sven Müller of Falken Porsche were moved up to second.
“The disappointment is all the greater as a behind-the-scenes mistake led to disqualification, which hurts,” said Mercedes-AMG’s customer racing chief Stefan Wendl.
It continues a tough start to 2026 for Verstappen, who is eight in the F1 championship after two rounds. The four-time world champion has struggled with his Red Bull car due to the technical changes made by F1, coming sixth in Australia and failing to finish in China.