Max Verstappen's Nurburgring rival rubbishes "laughable" lap time discussions after F1 champ's GT3 win

Max Verstappen's rival in the 2025 NLS Round 9 (ADAC Barbarossapreis) has deemed the discussions around the Dutchman's lap times as 'laughable'. In the GT3 class, Verstappen dominated his competition from the very start, and fans were amazed by his impressive pace. Along with his teammate Chris Lulham, he came away with a comfortable win.

Max Verstappen's participation in the Nürburgring GT3 class marked his debut in the competition. Throughout the entire event, the eyes were on Verstappen in his #31 Ferrari 296, which was run by Emil Frey Racing.

Verstappen started his outing in the four-hour event from P3, but as the race got underway, he immediately took the lead heading into the first corner. From that point on, he led comfortably from the front, and on lap four, clocked his fastest time of the day with 7:51.514. This was only two seconds shy of the NLS lap record (7:49:578).

Moreover, during his second stint, following a pit stop for refueling, he had a lead of over a minute at a certain point over the chasing pack. Everyone present at the track and around the world was in awe of his performance, and following the end of the race, Haupt Racing Team driver Frank Stippler (who finished P3) was not even a bit surprised by it.

In a post-race interaction, Stippler showered high praise on Verstappen and added the following:

"As everyone knows, he is the best track driver in the world. That’s why I’m not surprised by his overall win. When you also combine that with a driver lineup of that calibre, winning is the only logical outcome."

"He’s arguably the best driver in the world, so I find all this discussion about his lap times absolutely laughable. In Formula One, the others are missing something crucial, so why would that be different in GT3? That’s just crazy." (Via: Express.co.uk).

Max Verstappen drove for around two hours in the race, and his teammate, Chris Lulham, brought the car home with a comfortable victory.

Max Verstappen had an 'amazing' time driving the Ferrari 296 GT3

While Frank Stippler has showered praise on the reigning Formula 1 world champion, Max Verstappen, the latter also took the time to cast light on his outing via a post-race interview.

In line with this, the Dutchman deemed the feeling of driving the Ferrari 296 GT3 car around the Nurburgring as 'amazing' and added:

"It was great! During my first two stints, the car was amazing. After qualifying, I knew the car would be good on a dry track. Everything went well in terms of traffic, and we didn’t make any big mistakes. To win my debut race here is amazing." (Via: Verstappen.com).

With Max Verstappen's GT3 adventure behind him for the time being, he is currently gearing up for this week's Formula 1 event at the Marina Bay Street Circuit (Singapore GP). He is in third place in the 2025 drivers' standings.