Racing driver Juha Miettinen has died following a multi-car collision in the ADAC 24h Nurburgring Qualifiers in Germany, which were also set to feature four-time Formula One champion Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n
According to a statement from the organisers, race control immediately stopped competition following the serious incident early on, which involved seven competitors, and emergency services quickly arrived on scene.<\/p>\n
They were unable, however, to save 66-year-old Miettinen, who was removed from the vehicle and later died at the medical centre after attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
“Shocked by what’s happened today,” Verstappen, who was not competing at the time of the incident, wrote in a post to his Instagram Stories.<\/p>\n
“Motorsport is something we all love, but in times like this it is a reminder of how dangerous it can be.<\/p>\n
“Sending my heartfelt condolences to Juha\u2019s family and loved ones.”<\/p>\n
The full statement from organisers of the race read: “During the first race of the ADAC 24h N\u00fcrburgring Qualifiers (18 April 2026), a serious accident involving seven competitors occurred in the early 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.<\/p>\n
“Despite the immediate arrival of emergency services, the emergency medics were unable to save the driver involved, Juha Miettinen (BMW 325i, #121), 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 other six drivers involved were taken to the Medical Centre and nearby hospitals for precautionary examinations. None of the injured are in a life-threatening condition.<\/p>\n
“The race will not resume on Saturday evening. The thoughts of everyone involved in the 24 Hours of N\u00fcrburgring are with the bereaved family of Juha Miettinen.”<\/p>\n
There will be a minute\u2019s silence held in Miettinen\u2019s honour during the grid formation when competition resumes at 1pm local time on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Racing driver Juha Miettinen has died following a multi-car collision in the ADAC 24h Nurburgring Qualifiers in Germany,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-406365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}