Max Verstappen<\/a> was also preparing to race.<\/p>\nOrganizers of the ADAC 24h N\u00fcrburgring Qualifiers said that Juha Miettinen died after a crash involving seven cars. He was 66.<\/p>\n
“Following the collision between several vehicles, race control immediately halted the race to allow for extensive recovery and rescue operations,” they said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“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
Organizers said the other six drivers were taken to the medical center and nearby hospitals for precautionary examinations and that none were in a life-threatening condition.<\/p>\n
Verstappen, who is using this weekend’s races as part of his preparations for his first 24-hour sportscar race at the historic circuit on May 16-17, posted a message of condolence on social media.<\/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. “Sending my heartfelt condolences to Juha’s family and loved ones.”<\/p>\n
A minute’s silence will be held in memory of Miettinen during the grid formation for Sunday’s race.<\/p>\n
Running nearly 13 miles through wooded German hills, with more than 150 corners and barriers often close to the track, the Nordschleife layout at the N\u00fcrburgring is known for high-risk thrills. F1 hasn’t used it since 1976, when then-reigning champion Niki Lauda suffered severe burns in a crash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apr 18, 2026, 03:55 PM ET A driver died following a crash in an endurance sports car race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-613132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}