Verstappen, Engel Collide as Lead Battle Intensifies

Max Verstappen collided with Winward Racing stablemate Maro Engel as the battle for the Nürburgring 24 lead intensified between the two Mercedes-AMGs as the race reached half-distance, with the Formula 1 champion maintaining top spot.

The Nos. 3 and 80 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos had regularly swapped places for the lead since the sixth hour but that fight was ignited when Verstappen climbed aboard the No. 3 machine for the second time in the race midway through the 11th hour.

He emerged from the pits about four seconds behind Engel, as Dani Juncadella had closed a nine-second deficit in the previous stint, and Verstappen immediately eliminated that gap and began to pressurize Engel.

Things came to a head three laps later when Verstappen blasted ahead on the Dottinger Hohe.

However, Engel did not let the Dutchman escape and mounted his own attack on the same straight at the start of the 12th hour.

Verstappen was unwilling to yield and the pair made contact as they went through Tiergarten while also negotiating back-markers, with Engel forced to take to the grass.

He just kept the No. 80 car out of the barriers but fell a couple of seconds adrift of Verstappen.

Maxime Martin took over from Engel as the race approached half-distance with Verstappen maintaining a lead of 5.175 seconds.

The No. 34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo continued to occupy a solitary third despite suffering with a fuel consumption problem, circulating about two minutes behind the leaders but also two minutes ahead of the lead BMW, the No. 99 ROWE Racing M4 GT3 EVO.

The BMW M3 Touring 24H maintained its strong pace to occupy fifth spot, while the No. 84 ABT Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 that suffered a puncture on the opening lap had recovered to sixth.

The high rate of attrition continued with Alessio Picariello having a sizeable shunt on the approach to Bergwerk aboard the No. 17 Dunlop Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.

Picariello was running in seventh when he took to the grass as he attempted to lap the No. 13 White Angel for Fly and Help Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car and this speared him hard into the barriers. He was able to escape serious injury in the shunt.

Also in strife was the No. 7 Konrad Lamborghini that had run solidly in the top-five in the early stages but clonked the barriers at Hatzenbach to leave just 25 of the 41 SP9 top class cars still circulating after 12 hours.