Shortly after winning the second round of the Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie, Max Vertappen's car was disqualified.

Earlier in the day, the four-time world champion, who was sharing the Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon, had claimed pole 1.974s ahead of his nearest competitors, the Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II and the Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo.

Verstappen led the opening stint of the four-hour race, however Christopher Haase in the Scherer Sport PHX car subsequently took the lead with David Pittard in the AMG GT3 in hot pursuit.

Verstappen and Haase continued to battle until the Dutchman finally got ahead again on Lap 7. He subsequently pitted and handed over to Juncadella who almost immediately lost the lead.

However, Juncadella managed to reclaim the lead, and while the Scherer Sport PHX car dropped back, the KCMG Mercedes-AMG GT3 took up the fight.

Eventually, as the Verstappen car stretched its lead, Jordan Pepper in the van Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo claimed second ahead of the KCMG Mercedes now driven by Nirei Fukuzumi.

Following the second round of pit stops, Gounon took over, however his 30-second lead was cut due to a code 60, essentially a 60km/h VSC imposed following an incident, which when withdrawn saw the #99 BMW of Dan Harper within a second of the leading Mercedes.

After a brief but fierce battle, Harper passed Gounon for the lead, but the Verstappen driver fought back, subsequently benefitting from a penalty imposed on the BMW driver for causing a collision with a car he was lapping.

After 22 laps, and with less than an hour remaining, Gounon pitted and handed over to Verstappen, who emerged almost ninety seconds ahead of Nico Hantke's #16 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

At the chequered flag, after four hours of racing, Verstappen was 59s ahead of the #99 Rowe Racing car, which was just ahead of the #44 Porsche 911 GT3 R from Falken Motorsports.

"For me, this whole weekend has been about getting to grips with the car on the Nordschleife," said Verstappen. "Yes, it was super enjoyable," he added.

"The team prepared the car really well, so we could do some decent testing," he continued. "They made me feel really comfortable with the car. So yeah, really good experience for me.

"This whole venue is, of course, amazing," he grinned. "Also to see all the fans, and just how passionate they are about racing and the cars here - it's always fantastic to see, and I'm happy to be a part of that.

"For me this is one of the craziest tracks in the world... in a good way! I've been watching this for a very long time, and it's one of these races that you just want to compete in. And at least finally this year I have the chance to do it."

However, it was subsequently discovered that analysis of the Tyre App by the Technical Commission revealed that the Verstappen team had used seven sets of tyres instead of the permitted six.

During qualifying, the team had routinely exercised several driver and tyre changes and a mistake was made during this process, which ultimately led to the disqualification, said Mercedes-AMG Motorsport.

For Winward Racing, which managed the operational side of the Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing entry, this was their first Performance Team outing alongside Mercedes-AMG Motorsport at the Nurburgring.

Team principal, Christian Hohenadel explained that an error in the team's procedures was the cause of the incorrect number of tyre sets and expressed his disappointment at the final result.

Picture Credit: Verstappen.com