{"id":616447,"date":"2026-04-19T04:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T04:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616447\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T04:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T04:59:10","slug":"max-verstappen-tribute-to-nurburgring-death-instagram-tribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616447\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen tribute to Nurburgring death, Instagram tribute"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four-time Formula 1<\/a> world champion Max Verstappen<\/a> has posted a heartfelt tribute after the death of Juha Miettinen following a crash in an endurance sportscar race on Sunday at the N\u00fcrburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany.<\/p>\n

Organizers of the ADAC 24h N\u00fcrburgring Qualifiers said that the 66-year-old died after being involved in a major, seven car crash in the opening stages of the race.<\/p>\n

“Following the collision between several vehicles, race control immediately halted the race to allow for extensive recovery and rescue operations,” a statement issued to all drivers said.<\/p>\n

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“Despite the immediate arrival of emergency services, the emergency medics were unable to save the driver involved, Juha Miettinen, after he had been extracted from the vehicle; the driver died at the Medical Centre after all attempts at resuscitation proved unsuccessful.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The multi-car pileup. \u00a0Facebook<\/p>\n

Verstappen was also preparing to race, the Formula 1 driver utilising this weekend’s qualifier race as preparation for his first 24-hour race on May 16-17.<\/p>\n

The Red Bull Racing<\/a> driver was able to race due to the cancellation of both the Saudi Arabian and Bahrain grand prix races<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Ambulances<\/p>\n

Ambulances were on scene of the incident. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Organisers said the other six drivers were taken to the medical centre and nearby hospitals for precautionary examinations and that none were in a life-threatening condition.<\/p>\n

Verstappen posted a tribute to the long-time endurance driver on his Instagram story.<\/p>\n

“Shocked by what happened today. Motorsport is something we all love, but in times like this it is a reminder of how dangerous it can be,” Verstappen wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n

\"Verstappen's<\/p>\n

Verstappen’s tribute online. \u00a0Instagram<\/p>\n

“Sending my heartfelt condolences to Juha’s family and loved ones.”<\/p>\n

Driver Misha Charoudin, who was driving right behind the incident, explained what happened to Viaplay: “There was a very big crash.”<\/p>\n

“Someone left fluid behind and I think six or seven cars crashed into each other, so there is a huge traffic jam.<\/p>\n

“You approach that stretch at 220 kilometers per hour and if you can’t brake…”<\/p>\n

A minute’s silence will be held in memory of Miettinen during the grid formation for Monday’s race.<\/p>\n

– Additional reporting from AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen has posted a heartfelt tribute after the death of Juha Miettinen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-616447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}