Verstappen's team is 3rd in the first qualifying.

      On the "North Loop" of the Nürburgring, races have begun as part of the preparations for the 24-hour marathon, which is scheduled to start on Saturday at 16:00 Moscow time. The first part of the qualifying session has already taken place on the German track, which is essentially a practice session, but for cars that do not make it to the decisive Friday qualifying, it determines their starting positions. In the case of Max Verstappen's crew, the results of the Friday qualifying will hold sporting significance. Verstappen was the first from the crew to get behind the wheel and hit the track in the opening minutes. However, the start of the session was challenging due to constant yellow flags and an accident. Only after an hour could Max complete a fast lap with a time of 8:18.539 seconds, which turned out to be eight seconds faster than the previous session leader, Jordan Pepper from Rowe Racing in the BMW M4 GT3. After some time, Verstappen at the wheel of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 was replaced first by Daniel Huncadella, then by Jules Gounon, and finally at the end of the session by Lukas Auer. With half an hour left in the first part of qualifying, Verstappen's time was surpassed by Fabian Schiller from Team Ravenol in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 – 8:14.957 seconds. Soon, Raffaele Marciello, Pepper's teammate, improved Max's time by half a second, completing the best lap in 8:18.069 seconds. Towards the end of the session, rain began, and no one was able to improve their times. Thus, the crew of Verstappen Racing finished the first session at the Nürburgring with the third-best result overall and is preparing to continue working on the track.