In the fifth race of the 2026 Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, the second ADAC 24H Qualifier, Scherer Sport PHX secured the overall victory after another duel between Christopher Haase and Max Verstappen.
In Top Qualifying, the Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Realize Kondo Racing with Rinaldi made a statement: Thierry Vermeulen secured pole position with a lap time of 8:10.275. The margin was historically narrow: just a single thousandth of a second separated him from the second-placed BMW M4 GT3 of Gamota Racing.
Starting driver Dennis Marschall initially maintained the lead after the lights went out and battled in the leading group, but fate dealt a cruel blow after around 40 minutes. During an overtaking maneuver exiting Brünnchen, the Ferrari collided with a car it was lapping and came to rest in the gravel trap.
In the first half of the race, the thrilling duel between Haase in the #16 Scherer Audi and Verstappen in the Winward Racing-run #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 at the front of the field reignited, appearing like a direct replay of their NLS2 clash. Haase enjoyed the renewed, highly respectful exchange, but admitted that he was finding it significantly more difficult this time due to a lack of balance and oversteer in the cold conditions.
Even though the action generated plenty of adrenaline on the pit wall, according to Winward team manager Steve Buschmann, Verstappen was given the clear instruction to “take it easy, no risks”. After 90 minutes, however, Verstappen, leading the race, made an unscheduled pit stop, where damage to the front splitter was discovered. “We brought the car in as a precaution to prevent anything worse from happening and will use the remainder of today’s race as a test run,” said Buschmann. This gave Lucas Auer the opportunity to collect valuable mileage in heavy traffic.
Haase, Alexander Sims, and Ben Green then drove the #16 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II to victory 28 seconds ahead of the Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, driven by Luca Engstler, Mirko Bortolotti, and Patric Niederhauser.
The joy within the victorious Audi team was understandably immense after their success. Christopher Haase summed it up with satisfaction: “The most important thing today was, of course, the feedback for the 24-hour race. Finishing on top is a nice bonus, but the focus was on working on the setup.” His teammate Ben Green added: “The car felt consistent throughout the entire race. We were able to manage our lead well in the final stages.”
The final stages of the battle for the last podium position were particularly dramatic. Manthey’s Thomas Preining and Winward Racing’s Fabian Schiller engaged in an intense, lap-long duel, with the two cars often separated by mere centimetres.
Ultimately, Preining prevailed, holding on to a gap of almost three seconds to cross the finish line. Speaking to the microphone, Preining described the hard-fought battle from his perspective: “Fabian tried everything and was right next to me at times, but I was able to close the door every time. It was racing at the absolute limit, but always fair.”
Preining and Matt Campbell therefore completed the podium, with Mercedes-AMG Team Ravenol in fourth place and ROWE RACING’s #99 BMW fifth.
An impressive performance, far removed from the pure GT3 elite group, was also delivered by car number 81. The BMW M3 Touring won the SP-X class and fought its way up to an excellent seventh place overall, thus managing to hold its own against numerous pure-bred GT3 cars.
In the SP 9 Pro-Am class, Team Schnitzelalm Racing secured the class victory. Kenneth Heyer, Jay Mo Härtling, and Jannes Fittje piloted the #11 Mercedes-AMG GT3 to a strong eighth place overall.
In the SP 9 Am category, Team BLACK FALCON Team EAE triumphed. Mustafa Mehmet Kaya, Thomas Kiefer, Gabriele Piana, and Mike Stursberg demonstrated impressive consistency in the #5 Porsche 911 GT3 R. After already shining with a tenth-place finish in qualifying, they were able to confirm this performance in the race and clinch the class win..
Sven Markert, Edoardo Bugané, and Benjamin Albers of the Adrenalin Motorsport Team Mainhattan Wheels (winners of the BMW M240i class), along with Oskar Sandberg and Alexander Fielenbach of Smyrlis Racing (winners of the Cup 3 class) currently hold a joint-lead in the drivers’ standings, which, following the cancellation of two events, will not feature any dropped results this year.
Despite all the sporting highlights, Sunday was marked by mourning for Juha Miettinen. The Finnish driver was fatally injured in a multi-car collision during the start of the first race on Saturday in his BMW 325i. Before the start on Sunday, a highly emotional minute of silence united the drivers, teams, and fans on the starting grid.
Nürburg pastor Klaus Kohns found moving words in his address: “Perhaps this is the most important message we can take away from these days: that we belong together and are there for each other – especially in times of need.” It was a moment of profound solidarity that brought the motorsport community around the Nürburgring closer together and reminded everyone that human connection extends far beyond sporting competition in such dark times.
The qualifiers served as a dress rehearsal for the ADAC 24H Nürburgring, which will be held from 14th to 17th May 2026. The next NLS event, the 1st ADAC Eifel trophy, will be held on 20th June.
Images courtesy of Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie
