Mekies continued: “Not sending Max out for a second run in Q2 was certainly a close call, but we knew we had to take some risks after deciding to approach qualifying with only three new sets of softs to give ourselves more strategic options for the race.”

After qualifying, Max commented on the heart-stopping moment when he lost control of the car: “On that same lap in turn 6 on the entry, I had a big moment. That was a bit weird because all weekend I haven’t had something like that. When I arrived to turn 9 and I turned in, the car was immediately gone, it was immediately full lock off. So that’s a bit odd. It’s a shame. I think realistically we could have ended up on P3.”

Red Bull Racing also came with an upgrade package to the Spielberg circuit. On whether the upgrade packet is pushing the car in the right direction: “We will have to see. On this track the laps are very short, so naturally a lot of people were close. There are still a few things to understand from the package — what worked well and some bits not so well, and we’ll work from there.”

The Verstappen Racing crew had started the Saturday part of the Rally in eighth place after a difficult day on Friday. Saturday’s leg start with the ninth special stage, Watou. For the first loop (five stages) tyres cannot be changed, and with rain pelting down, the choice of tyres will be critical. Championship leader Hayden Paddon immediately discovers the consequences of making the wrong choice when he ends up in a ditch, losing more than a minute to Stéphane Lefebvre, who started the stage on wet-weather tyres.

Starting 33rd on the road due to not setting a qualifying time on Thursday, Jos posts the nineteenth-fastest time on the opening special stage, Kemmelberg, after a small mistake along the way. On stage two, Zwarte Berg, he improves to tenth, and on the third stage, Reninge, he sets the ninth-fastest time. After three stages, Jos and Renaud have climbed to fourteenth overall.

“It was a difficult day to find the right balance", said Max after FP2. We need to work on the grip of the front and rear. We have to find the right compromise to find pace, because it looks like we’re lacking. We’ll see what we can do.”

FP1 sees several reserve and rookie drivers make an appearance. Paul Aron (Audi), Luke Browning (Williams), Dino Beganovic (Ferrari), Ayumu Iwasa (Racing Bulls), Ryo Hirakawa (Haas) and Jak Crawford (Aston Martin) all take to the picturesque Red Bull Ring.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver added: “We already made improvements, but those were the ‘easier’ steps. The last few tenths, the ones you need to fight for the win, are the hardest. The team is always flat out, but other teams also bring upgrades. But we’ll try to keep closing the gap, hopefully we can starting this weekend.

“For me it was actually quite a lonely race and just too slow,” Verstappen said after the race. “Every stint you just lose a bit of time on every tyre. None of them really worked, at least for us. But I think that is also just because we are a bit too slow on all compounds.”

In the closing stages Verstappen was still setting competitive lap times on the medium tyre, but according to the four-time world champion it did not feel any better. “That was mainly because I pitted a bit later and therefore had a few laps of advantage. But towards the end it did not really go. In reality it was just the same as in all the stints.”

Verstappen also watched Lewis Hamilton take his first win for Ferrari. The Dutchman had praise for the seven-time world champion: “It is a nice moment. From what I could see he was incredibly quick today. Your first win with a new team is always very special, even if you have already won so much.”

He also reacted to the news that Nyck de Vries had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. “I had not seen it yet, because I only look at my phone once I am back in my room. But that is obviously really great. I am happy about that.” He also looked ahead to the evening, when the Netherlands face Japan in football: “I hope they win, that is the most important thing.”

“It was a shame about the puncture and flat tyre, as things were going reasonably well,” Verstappen said in the morning, following their first stint. “We’re testing a few things and hope to continue on at the same pace.”

The pair were able to keep a good thing going in the following stints and outcompete the rest of the field. After crossing the finish line, a pleased Verstappen chimed in: “We are very satisfied with this win. We managed to improve the car throughout the day, it feels good. We’re happy with this."

The Rally of Wervik served not only as preparation for the Ypres Rally in two weeks' time, but also as Jamoul's first time stepping back in the car for a competitive session since suffering an ankle fracture.

When the session gets underway, its only the two Cadillacs of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez that join the sole Audi (Nico Hulkenberg) out on track. It is not until 20 minutes into FP3 that more drivers take to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

In FP1, seven test drivers made an appearance. Ayumu Iwasa drove Isack Hadjar’s Oracle Red Bull Racing alongside Leonardo Fornaroli (McLaren), Paul Aron (Audi), Dino Beganovic Ferrari), Colton Herta (Cadillac), Fred Vesti (Mercedes) and Luke Browning (Williams). Unfortunately for Browning, his appearance remained limited to being a spectator in the cockpit with Williams unable to get the car ready due to technical issues.

The first half of the sessions sees most drivers head out on the hard and medium Pirelli tyres. Max starts on the latter but is not too pleased with the handling of the Red Bull. “I have understeer in one corner, but oversteer in the next. I’ve got everything, it’s horrible.” Nevertheless, the 4-time champ remains in the top six throughout practice.

“That first Grand Prix victory feels like a long time ago,” said the 28-year-old Verstappen. “I always enjoy being here. Barcelona is one of my favourite cities and it is also a great track as well. I hope we have a good weekend. It looks as though it will be nice and warm. Monaco did not end the way we wanted, but life goes on.”

The FIA has amended the regulations for 2027 and 2028, giving the internal combustion engine a larger share of the total power produced by the power units. Max commented: “It was good to see that changes are being made. Not only for this year, but also for next year. Of course, I had hoped we would move to V8 engines next year, but I also understand that there are politics involved. In any case, changes are being made, and that is a good thing.”

“The formation lap already felt a bit odd,” Max explained after he exited the car. “After that, the pre-start was truly terrible; there was just absolutely no consistency. As soon as I dropped the clutch that was it. The engine broke down completely. After that the noise that I heard from the engine once I got some power back out of turn 1 was very bad. I couldn't go full throttle, we brought the car in, and that was it.”

“I had no power, so I was steering left purely with the friction of the wheels, and just praying everyone would go right. Luckily everyone reacted very well.”

“We had a really good weekend up until the race. Of course everyone is really disappointed not to be on the podium,” Max says in summary. “We need to make sure that we finish races, and then we need to understand what went wrong today.”

“If you would have told me yesterday that we would be on the front row, I would have taken it,” Max says afterwards. “I went into qualifying thinking: maybe top five. So when you’re fighting for pole, that just feels really good.” The Dutchman was surprised by Red Bull’s pace. “I didn’t expect it to be that much better compared to the rest. I just didn’t expect to be in the fight for pole.”

Thanks to his strong final lap, Max secures a place on the front row. The Dutchman now turns his focus to Sunday. “We need a bit of luck of course. You can’t overtake here, but you never know,” he reflects. Asked whether he was disappointed with the tiny gap to polesitter Kimi Antonelli, Verstappen remains calm: “I didn’t make any mistakes on my lap, so I don’t think you can be too negative about it.”

Looking back on the session, Max also reflects on the feeling of the current generation of Formula 1 cars around a circuit like Monaco. “They are more on edge than the last few years. Even with the power delivery, drivability and shifting, it’s all a bit different. Once you get on top of it and you get a clean lap out of it, especially in qualifying where you’re flat out on the limit, it’s very rewarding when it goes well.”

“It was a positive day to be honest. I felt good in the car, and we made progress in FP2. It’s now a case of finetuning. I’m happy with the car, but you always want more. So let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

When the pitlane opens it is immediately busy with everyone bar Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) taking to the track. All drivers are lapping on the hard Pirelli tyres in the first quarter of the session. Leclerc is the early pace setter with Max in fourth.

Max shared some of his thoughts with the press after qualifying: “Truthfully, I don’t know what was going on in qualifying. It was very strange,” he began to explain. “Every lap felt like I kept going slower on the straights.” The four-time champion also mentioned that changes to the setup had had limited effect: “It was somewhat better over the kerbs and bumps, but it also meant I lost downforce. In the end, that does work against you.”

Getting the tyres to the right temperature was another struggle: “Because you’re slower coming into certain turns, the points at which you brake also change. That doesn’t help at all.”

In anticipation of qualifying, Oracle Red Bull Racing also tried some different setups with the car: “I tried something with the car – that’s what the team wanted. So I said: ‘Go ahead.’ But it’s clear to me now that it was the wrong choice.”

With rain expected for Sunday, Max is not anticipating an easy race: “It’s already hard enough to keep the slicks in good condition across one lap. In Barcelona, it was already difficult to get the wet tyres working. So that’s a problem I’m anticipating.”

The sprint race in Canada was far from enjoyable for Max, who spent most of the race running in no man’s land while once again struggling with a bouncing car. “We already knew after sprint qualifying that we have that issue, and after qualifying you can’t touch the car anymore,” he explained. “So really you just want to survive that sprint race and then hope you can improve the car for qualifying.”

According to Max, the issue is a familiar one: “It’s a known problem with the car, sometimes it’s worse than others. This time it was really extreme,” he said. “The car is very difficult over the bumps. It’s really uncomfortable to drive.”

Looking ahead to qualifying later today, Max hopes that the right adjustments can help turn things around. “We’re going to make some changes, because this is really difficult to drive,” he said. Asked whether a top-five result is achievable, Max replied: “If we improve the car a bit, yes. We can’t make it worse, that’s for sure. We can only make it better.”

“I’m not surprised by this result,” said Max afterwards. “My feeling in the car was not so good. I was struggling a lot with it. It was very difficult to be consistent. That’s something we need to investigate. We’ll have to deal with it for the sprint, but hopefully we can improve it for qualifying.”

As it is a sprint weekend, track time is in high demand during the only practice session before the drivers head into Friday afternoon’s sprint qualifying, Saturday’s sprint and Saturday's Grand Prix qualifying.

It is a botched start for Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson. The former’s Alpine nearly grinds to a halt, but the Argentinian nurses his car to the pits with a technical problem. Lawson is more unfortunate with this Racing Bull shutting down and having to be pushed behind the barriers by the marshals. The stricken RB prompts the first red flag of the session at a time when Max tops the leaderboards.

With forty minutes to go, the lap times drop with several drivers briefly claiming P1. Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Hamilton, Russell and Antonelli all lap the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve quicker than Max’s early benchmark.

“I think in general it was a good week. I really enjoyed it. It was my first long distance race and everything went well. We had a car in good shape and we executed everything well. But that’s racing; it’s still a mechanical sport and it cost us the win. We controlled everything up until that point”, explained Max.

“Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the whole experience like the changing conditions and sharing a car with teammates. There are a lot of different types of racing, but this one has always been on my list and it’s something I want to keep doing.”

In the end, it was that car – driven by Maro Engel, Luca Stolz, Fabian Schiller and Maxime Martin, and starting from P20 – that won the legendary endurance race on the iconic Nordschleife after Verstappen Racing retired with three hours remaining due to a driveshaft failure.

“It was good,” Max explained after his stint on Sunday morning, when Verstappen Racing was still leading. “Back in the daylight, trying to stay safe while still maintaining good pace and staying out of trouble. It felt good, the car was working well.”

Speaking about driving a GT3 car, Max added: “The competition, endurance style racing with team-mates. A 24-hour race, especially here, is incredibly challenging. That whole combination.” Will we see you back here next year? “I will for sure try, but it also depends on my calendar.”

After the last pit stop of both leading Mercs, Verstappen Racing’s Jules Gounon has managed to extend the team’s lead to 28s. The Andorran-French driver then hands over to Lucas Auer. The Austrian settles in for a double stint in which he duels with Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz of the #80 outfit.

After Max took over the car for Verstappen Racing at 2:00 a.m. to commence his second stint in the car, the fight between the Verstappen Racing team and the #80 Mercedes for first place continued for lap after lap. When Max, after a double stint of almost two hours, hands over the keys to teammate Jules Gounon, the lightning fast Dutchman had built the lead to Maxime Martin in the #80 to over 27 seconds.

Three and a half hours into Verstappen Racing’s and Max’s first ever Nurburgring 24 Hour race, the Dutchman heads to the pits with a 23s lead to hand over to Jules Gounon. The entire top six in the race also opt to pit, meaning Gounon emerges from pitlane back in the lead, ahead of the #911 Manthey Racing GmbH.

“My stint went well. I did have some traffic at the start, which was difficult to get through. After that, it was slippery because of the rain and that’s where I was able to make the difference. The car felt good and I tried to stay out of trouble, whilst also trying to push and be on the limit. That’s always a difficult compromise to strike, but it went well.”

The session starts on a dry track, although clouds can be seen all around the 25.3-kilometre-long “Green Hell”. During the first fifteen minutes, Verstappen Racing is not seen on track. Once Gounon heads out, he sets the second fastest time behind the #1 BMW, last year’s race winner.

On Friday afternoon, the twelve fastest GT3 cars prepare to battle for pole position for the 54th edition of the legendary 24 Hours of Nürburgring on the famous Nordschleife. Dani Juncadella is on duty for Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, after Max Verstappen took part in Top Qualifying 2, and Lucas Auer drove during Top Qualifying 1. A different driver is required for each session.

The final phase, Top Qualifying 3, follows a shoot-out format: all twelve remaining cars are shown the green flag one by one, ensuring everyone has a clear track to complete two flying laps. After some rain, the track has largely dried up, although a few damp patches remain.