Max Verstappen speaks out on shock Nordschleife disqualification

Max Verstappen has spoken out about his team's disqualification from the NLS2 race at the Nordschleife, having initially won the four-hour event by 59 seconds.

The Dutchman, who competed as part of his preparations for May's Nürburgring 24 Hours, secured pole by two seconds.

Verstappen completed the first and final stints in a Mercedes-AMG GT3, with team-mates Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon performing the second and third stints, respectively.

After an early battle with an Audi, it was another smooth and dominant outing for Verstappen, before his team was stripped of victory post-race.

The four-time F1 champion's team was disqualified after using seven sets of tyres, one more than the permitted amount.

A mistake was made by the mechanics while practising pit stops during qualifying, when an illegal set of tyres was fitted to the car. Despite the disappointment of losing the win, Verstappen still viewed the event as a success.

"Well, overall, it was a great weekend," Verstappen told select media, including RacingNews365. "We had a really good time together, with my teammates as well. 

"Then, of course, we had a small mistake in qualifying when we were practising the pit stops, where they added another set to the car while we were doing the outings. 

"But besides that, of course, in the race, it's very straightforward, as everyone just uses four new sets. Yeah, it's a shame, of course, to lose it. But at the same time, it probably puts the team on point. Maybe it needed that a little bit. 

"But the overall working experience was really good. Also within the team, the engineers know what they're doing. They have been incredibly successful for a while in GT racing. So for me, overall, it was a really fun weekend."

Verstappen 'smiling' again

Competing in GT racing has been a lifelong ambition of Verstappen's, and he is finding significant enjoyment in the category.

The Red Bull star has been highly critical of how unenjoyable the current F1 cars are, but revealed that when driving GT machinery last weekend, he was jumping out of the car "smiling".

Asked if it gave him what F1 does not in regard to enjoyment, Verstappen replied: "It's impossible to compare, but I wanted to do that for a while.

"It's really something that I enjoy a lot. So yeah, every time I jumped out of the car, I was smiling, and I think that's always a good thing."