Three of Nürburgring Winners Also Stood on Podium at Rolex 24 At Daytona
By Tony DiZinno
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Winward Racing and Mercedes-AMG have scaled the heights of two marquee, global 24-hour endurance races in the first half of 2026.
Its American arm captured its third Rolex 24 At Daytona win in six years in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class with its No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3, starting the year off successfully in pursuit of its third straight championship.
Then this weekend, Mercedes-AMG scaled the rostrum at the “Green Hell” – the full Nürburgring Nordschleife – for the first time in 10 years. The No. 80 Winward-run Mercedes-AMG Team RAVENOL Mercedes-AMG GT3 won overall as part of the team’s much touted two-car effort.
There were two different sets of winning drivers. The Rolex 24 winning lineup included Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, Indy Dontje and Lucas Auer. At the Nürburgring, the crew included Maro Engel, Maxime Martin, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz.
Bryce Ward, Winward team owner, shared the top step of the podium with the winning quartet as the American anthem rang out over the ‘Ring.
While Engel, Martin and Stolz didn’t win at the Rolex 24 this year, they were part of the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) podium. Engel was part of the second-placed 75 Express No. 75 car alongside a trio of Australians, Kenny Habul, Will Power and Chaz Mostert, while Martin and Stolz spearheaded Winward’s successful GTD PRO debut entry with the No. 48 car it shared with Scott Noble and Jason Hart.
Winward’s Nürburgring win came after recovering from a 25th place grid position, then enduring a hard-fought battle with its much-hyped sister car. That was the No. 3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing entry driven by Auer, Jules Gounon, Daniel Juncadella… and four-time Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen in his Nürburgring 24-hour debut.
Through changeable conditions including intermittent rain, the two Winward entries were running 1-2, until a driveshaft failure negated the Verstappen car’s chances. That left it to the No. 80 Mercedes-AMG entry to bring it home to the flag for Engel’s second win and the first for the other trio.
“This is a truly significant achievement – I couldn’t be prouder,” Christoph Sagemüller, Head of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, said in a release. “The 24h Nürburgring is one of the biggest and most important endurance races for us, and we were determined to win it again. I am overwhelmed that we have managed to do so after ten long years with the Mercedes-AMG Team RAVENOL.
“As is so often the case in motorsport, however, joy and disappointment are never far apart. For long stretches, we witnessed a close battle between our two performance cars. That is why it is particularly unfortunate that the race came to an early end for Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing. My thanks go to everyone involved who supported this extraordinary event.”
Engel, who has four career WeatherTech Championship wins including a pair at the Rolex 24 (2021 with Winward in GTD, 2023 with WeatherTech in GTD PRO), reveled in his second Nürburgring triumph.
“We’ve had to wait 10 long years for this success,” Engel explained in the same release. “Although rain wasn’t exactly the weather I’d hoped for in the final half-hour, I was still able to hold onto the position with confidence. Thanks to the team for getting the car back in such good shape after my mistake in qualifying. I feel very sorry for the sister car. Both Mercedes-AMG GT3 cars were really fast. But I’m just glad now that our hard work has finally paid off after such a long time. Thanks to all the spectators. The atmosphere was fantastic all weekend.”
Red Bull Team ABT’s Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 and Walkenhorst Motorsport’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo completed the overall and SP-9 class podium.
Flurry of IMSA Full-Timers Star as Well
On an open weekend, many of IMSA’s best were in action as well across the Nürburgring race.
BMW M Team WRT’s Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde, who share the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), finished fourth overall in a ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO they shared with 2025 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTD PRO champions Max Hesse and Dan Harper.
Also on the BMW front, the one-off BMW M3 Touring 24h built by the factory and run unregulated finished fifth overall with Paul Miller Racing’s GTD PRO stars, Neil Verhagen and Connor De Phillippi, sharing the No. 81 car with Jens Klingmann and Ugo de Wilde.
Porsche Penske Motorsport and JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Laurens Vanthoor and Laurin Heinrich, respectively, were in the best-finishing Porsche 911 GT3 R, sixth for Lionspeed GP they shared with Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring GTD PRO winner Ricardo Feller.
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca GTD PRO winners Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Mies were eighth in an HRT Ford Mustang GT3 they shared with Dennis Olsen and Frank Stippler.
They were but a handful of IMSA drivers adding this endurance challenge to their schedules, with this group faring better than others.
Nürburgring Photos Courtesy of Mercedes-AMG