The Max Verstappen effect: Nurburgring lap record SMASHED BY 11 seconds

Max Verstappen

The Max Verstappen effect: Nurburgring lap record SMASHED BY 11 seconds

The lap record at the Nurburgring Nordschleife has been smashed

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 18 April 2026 10:31

Max Verstappen's recent exploits around the Nurburgring Nordschleife appear to have inspired other racers, with a new lap record being set at the track this week.

Verstappen made his GT3 debut at the so-called 'Green Hell' last year, winning while racing with his Verstappen Racing team.

The Dutchman and his team-mates also claimed success on-track earlier this year in an NLS race, before being disqualified for exceeding the maximum tyre usage.

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The four-time world champion is back at the track this weekend for another NLS race, which he is using as preparation for the upcoming 24 Hours of Nurburgring race.

But in the lead up to that race, another racer has shaved 11 seconds off the Nurbrugring Nordschleife record.

Ford Racing's Dirk Muller drove the Ford Mustang GTD Competition around the track and completed the lap in 6:40:835, the new record in the prototypes / pre-production vehicles category. Muller had originally set the previous record, but shaved 11 seconds off his previous time.

Verstappen drove a Mustang GTD last year, and it's a car that Ford CEO Jim Farley has revealed will become available in the future as a special edition street legal road car.

Farley himself revealed that Muller had broken the track record in a post on X.

He said: "When we said 'game on' we meant it! Congrats to our Ford Mustang GTD team for setting a new record lap time around the Nurburgring! "With the new Mustang GTD Competition, the team shaved more than 11 seconds off our previous lap time - 6:40:835!

"This lap was driven once again by Ford Racing and factory driver Muller, but Ford Racing engineer Steve Thompson also drove a lap to a time of 6:49.337 around the ring - which was faster than Muller’s original record.

"Congrats to Dirk and Steve for showing just what the Mustang GTD Competition can do!"

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Will F1 ever return to the Nordschleife?

The Nurburgring Nordschleife is a demanding 20.8km (12.9-mile) circuit with 154 turns, designed by architect Gustav Eichle in the backdrop of the Eifel mountains, and built between 1925-1927.

The most recent F1 race to have taken place on the Nurburgring Nordschleife was the 1976 German Grand Prix, which was won by James Hunt.

However, F1 has raced on the modern circuit layout since then, regularly between 2009-2013 and again in 2020 for the Eifel GP as part of the COVID-hit F1 season.

F1 is unlikely to ever return to the Nordschleife layout, with it being deemed following Niki Lauda's near-fatal crash in 1976 that organisers just did not have the resources to manage such a long circuit, and that was not satisfactory for F1.

The 1976 German GP saw one of the most infamous moments in F1 history. World champion Niki Lauda lost control of his Ferrari before the right-hand Bergwerk curve, and crashed into an earth bank, before the car bounced back onto the track, engulfed in flames.

He almost lost his life in the days following the incident, but remarkably made a full recovery, and was back racing in F1 by the 1976 Italian GP, before claiming the title in 1977.

The last time an F1 car was driven around the Nurburgring Nordschleife layout was in 2023, when David Coulthard and Sebastian Vettel raced old Red Bull F1 cars around the track in a special event.

F1 Max Verstappen Nürburgring Nurburgring Nordschleife