Five-time Nürburgring 24 Hours winner Timo Bernhard said he was “emotional” after Max Verstappen’s commanding GT3 debut win at the Nordschleife

#31 Emil Fray Racing Ferrari 296 GT3: Max Verstappen, Christopher Lulham

Photo by: Jan Brucke/VLN

Five-time Nürburgring 24 Hours winner Timo Bernhard had an emotional reaction to Max Verstappen’s GT3 victory.

The four-time Formula 1 champion won on his GT3 debut at the Nordschleife in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie alongside his team-mate, British driver Chris Lulham.

Bernhard reacted to the Dutchman’s commanding victory during the broadcast of the 6 Hours of Fuji, admitting that it made him “emotional”.

“Hats off to Max Verstappen to tackle the Nordschleife, and I like this,” the German driver explained. “Actually, the platform which gets the most attention, is Formula 1, for sure.

“When they try other disciplines, you mentioned Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, we shared the car for three years. We had great fun.

“These are great race car drivers, and they like to experience other things. And endurance racing, it has so much to offer. So you see, I’m emotional, it’s great racing, I love it.

He added: “It’s great. I don’t know him personally, but hearing things about him, for sure, he’s a racer. And I liked it, the way he tackled [the race]. He has a huge talent, as we know.

“Nordschleife is something special, and he really honours the place also, that’s something I cherish, I like.”

Verstappen started the race from third on the grid and quickly took the lead before the first turn. From that point on, he built an impressive gap to the pack behind him, which reached a minute at one stage.

This comes after back-to-back F1 wins for the Red Bull driver in Italy and Azerbaijan, which has put him back in the drivers’ championship fight.

“I think this weekend has been incredible for us,” Verstappen said after claiming the victory in Baku ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and Williams driver Carlos Sainz in second and third, respectively.

“Of course, last [F1] weekend was already great, but for us to win here again is just fantastic. I think also in the race, the car was working really well on both of the compounds [of tyre]. We had clean air all of the time and then you could look after your tyres and it was pretty straightforward.

“Of course, it’s not easy around here. It was very windy today, so the car was always moving around a lot, but of course, I’m incredibly happy with this performance.”