Verstappen Racing's bid for a debut Nurburgring 24 Hours victory unravelled in the final stages on Sunday morning when the No. 3 Landgraf Mercedes-AMG GT3 surrendered the race lead to a right-rear driveshaft failure with three hours and thirty minutes remaining.
The car, shared by Max Verstappen, Chris Lulham, Thierry Vermeulen, and Dani Juncadella, had spent most of the night at the front of the field, with Verstappen's overnight stint reported to be the fastest of the race and the highlight of his weekend cameo. Juncadella took over for the dawn shift holding a 30-second lead over the sister No. 80 Ravenol Mercedes-AMG of Maro Engel, the gap a function of crisp pit work and a clean run through the Nordschleife's notorious sweepers.
Two laps into Juncadella's stint, an ABS warning lit up the dashboard. The Spaniard managed the issue through the lap, but vibrations and noises from the rear of the car forced an unscheduled stop at the garage. A 15-minute inspection revealed a damaged right-rear driveshaft along with collateral damage that had cascaded from the failed component. Engel, who had been pacing the gap from a safe second, swept by on track to inherit the lead for the No. 80, putting Mercedes-AMG on course for its first overall Nurburgring 24 win in a decade.
The factory side of the operation, run by Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing, framed the failure as bad luck on a part that had given no warning.
"We received an ABS warning, but Dani felt he could manage with it," Stefan Wendl, head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing, said.
"However, noises and vibrations subsequently developed, forcing him to make an unscheduled pit stop after just two laps. We then discovered damage to the driveshaft, which had caused further collateral damage. We are now repairing it and definitely intend to rejoin the race."
The No. 3 returned to the circuit several laps down in ninth and turned its remaining laps into a development run, with Verstappen and Vermeulen sharing the remainder of the driver workload. The Walkenhorst Aston Martin moved into a podium position behind Engel.
Verstappen, racing under his own team's banner for the first time in the marquee endurance event, had arrived with the stated goal of competing in "one of the biggest races of the year," and the No. 3 carried genuine pole-shootout pace from Friday onwards despite a weight handicap added at scrutineering. The night stint that put him in command of the race was the kind of statement run that earned Maro Engel and Manuel Metzger their Nordschleife reputations in the late 2010s.
The result is a familiar twist for the Eifel circuit, which has a long history of swallowing race-leading cars in the final hours. Recent winners Manthey-EMA, Audi Sport, and Phoenix Racing have all lost overnight leads to relatively minor mechanical issues that snowballed in the closing laps. The 2026 edition has now followed the script.
Engel's victory bid for the No. 80, should it hold, would mark Mercedes-AMG's first overall N24 success since the Black Falcon trio of Engel, Adam Christodoulou, and Manuel Metzger took the chequered flag in 2016. For Team Verstappen, the consolation is a maiden N24 entry that converted into eight or so hours at the front of the toughest endurance race in Germany. The trophy, this year, was three laps too far.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/verstappen-mercedes-amg-driveshaft-nurburgring-24-2026-juncadella-engel). Visit for full coverage.*
