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Max Verstappen was disqualified from a four-hour Nurburgring race for using too many sets of tyres – but with the officials’ intervention only coming after he won the race.
The four-time F1 champion intends to race the 24 Hours of Nurburgring in May, and took another break from the F1 season to enter the shorter German race on Saturday.
Verstappen’s presence was a coup for the race, which was brought forward by a week to allow him to compete in between the Chinese and Japanese Grands Prix.
The Dutchman took pole position in the GT3 class by nearly two seconds, and won the race alongside co-drivers Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella in a Winward-run Mercedes AMG GT3 with Red Bull livery.
The trio won the race by nearly a full minute but used seven sets of tyres over the course of qualifying and the race and were disqualified afterwards for the infringement, with cars only allowed to use six sets.
Winward team principal Christian Hohenadel told Motorsport.com: “The disqualification is tough to take. Unfortunately, we made an internal error that left the stewards with no choice but to exclude the winning car.
“We will now analyze the day thoroughly, meticulously prepare for the upcoming races, and work with full concentration towards the 24 Hours of Nurburgring.”
Verstappen won another four-hour Nurburgring race last year, in a Red Bull-liveried Ferrari 296 GT3.
The 24 Hours of Nurburgring falls in a natural break in the F1 calendar, between the Miami Grand Prix at the start of May and the Canadian Grand Prix at the end of the month.
Verstappen told media after the race but before news of the disqualification came in that it was a “super enjoyable” race.
He said: “It was a really good experience for me. For me, this is one of the craziest tracks in the world, in a good way. I’ve been watching this for a very long time and it’s one of these races that you just want to compete in.”