Original subtitles

We make your heart race.

I need to find our pit box.

Every time we've driven into the box, I have no idea where to park it.

It's a free-for-all in the race anyway.

You have two and a half minutes. It doesn't matter.

Yeah, but from stationary time, no?

Two and a half minutes for the pit lane time, I think.

So I have a minute to go up and down the pit lane to find it.

Put it in reverse.

Oh, shit, too far, back to reverse.

Max has had highs at the start of the season.

But then you look at the low points.

It really kind of unravelled after Spain.

From there on, it just completely fell apart.

And particularly this race in Hungary

we saw that even Max couldn't have tamed that red bull

that seems to be slipping further and further down the pecking order.

Zandvoort and all the races leading up to that.

Yeah, that was painful.

Yeah, we were in such a tough time.

Not seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

I wanted to race in the GT3 here at the Nordschleife.

So at one point, you need to do your license.

And for me, this is probably the perfect time to do it

because once you have it, you can just focus on coming back.

Good luck, Max!

So first you had to do an online course with flags and rules.

So that I did.

The plan is to do one round by bus. That's basically the theory part.

I'm really into iRacing and I can give you some good tips.

Normally in a classroom, you go over stuff.

But for me, we sat in the van to do a lap around the track

to explain a bit more what's going on.

I prefer that over a classroom because that's really boring.

We'll go for a picnic.

Is this you, Chris?

Then I had to do two laps. I followed him around in my car.

It was not very fast, but you have to follow the rules, and that's fine.

I knew that that is what I had to do.

So you stick to it. And they were very helpful.

It's been a while that I had something like this.

And now we have proof, so... - Well done.

Congrats with your driver's license. - Well, not yet.

It's a B license.

The B of Billy.

And I need A.

But if we don't put it over the barrier tomorrow, then we'll have it.

The permit process is a complicated process.

Basically, Max needed two official race classifications

with the Permit B, Porsche.

Permit B being the restricted, overweight Porsche.

- Good morning. - Good morning.

How are you?

So we can do this quickly, I think.

I don't need to explain to you how to race.

Most important on the racetrack, because we do multi-class racing

is the respect on the track.

In the end, that's why we do this topic with permit B

so you know how it is for a slower car

with faster cars coming from behind.

I'm here. I'm a slow car, that's for sure.

Unfortunately, for this race.

I'd already done one race a couple of months prior.

Because Max was a platinum-graded driver in the FIA

Max was allowed two classifications so he didn't have different events.

You do it in two different cars.

Eight laps in one and another seven laps in the other.

Hence, we had two different Permit B Porsches there, basically.

In the end, it's important for you today to have no penalties

and to come to the finish line. Any questions?

- The pit lane is open. - Nice and wet.

Yeah, very wet. The pit lane is open.

Slippery. - Very wet, yeah.

I did my inspection and it's fully wet.

Okay, good.

Take care in Kesselchen, it's always very slippery.

This is the part where we have the new guardrails.

Right. Let's try and keep them there. - Exactly. Good luck.

Yeah, thank you.

Where is that on the track?

Let's see.

We went out to do a lap to have some fun.

Following each other on the wet Nordschleife.

And I had a bit of a moment.

Hello!

And?

- How's it going? - Wait, we have something.

- Hello Chris! - Hi.

What happened, actually? - I don't know.

Was it in the fast left? - The one after.

It accelerated me as I downshifted.

The blip just pushed me on and I went into the wall with the front right.

When I looked in the mirror, I was like: wait, I lost someone...

I already thought he went off.

- Maybe he went in the grass... - The grass was ice.

I went off and I accelerated into the wall.

It was a tire wall, not an armco.

Why is it so funny?

He found it quite funny. I'm not sure I saw the humour in it straight away.

I kept going. - Yeah, quite a while.

I got up to the carrousel...

- He needs to translate the German. - Yeah, I was reading out the dash.

It was losing power, so I figured I should stop.

That's why you run to.

No, I wanted to hide at that point.

The bumper's gone, like the radiator's fucked, front right.

The geometry is...

The wheel was just flat.

It was an older generation car, they couldn't get the spare parts

to repair it fully, like race-ready, for the race later that day.

Let's hope, if we can't fix the car, that I can do it at least in one car.

Could you check parallel to me in the regulations

if a chassis change is possible?

What is article 6, paragraph 2? What is that?

It's been provided that a 20% share of the total laps...

It doesn't fully say that it needs to be two cars.

On each of the cars.

Because one did not finish.

Okay, as long as the driver does it, you do 20% of the total laps.

I will do in one car. Yeah, exactly.

We shared one car for the full race, basically.

So it was purely a race of...

Not a race, that's the wrong word.

We just had to finish.

Mate, this is unbelievable. Look how slow I am on this train.

Yeah, it was very funny.

So they allowed me to do the laps basically in one car.

As long as the other car started to cross the pit exit

and then, officially, that car has entered.

So they were very nice and helpful

because that would have been quite painful.

But they were helpful and understood the problem we had.

I have to do another race.

- Chris. - What?

We didn't get the permit.

I need to do in two weeks another race.

Because of the second car.

The committee weren't finalizing it.

Seriously? - Yeah.

You can do that? - Well, we have to see.

That's not going to happen. - Not tomorrow?

- No, he doesn't want to do it. - You can't do tomorrow? Why not?

What's funny?

It was also funny to mess a bit with Chris

because he did his thing and we were like: we have to do it again.

I didn't get my license.

And he felt a bit sorry initially.

- I wanted to see your face. - You're fucking with me.

Fuck!

There's no Formula 1

and Max Verstappen decided: let me go and do some side quests.

Morning. - Morning!

First and foremost, of course, he got the fastest lap

in Formula 1 history in Monza qualifying.

He then won the race the next day.

The next week after that, he gets the Nordschleife permit

in the Porsche GT4.

The week after that, he goes and wins, of course, Baku.

The actual job he has, which is Formula 1, which is what? Perfect.

And the week after that, today, he's going to race

in the proper GT3 class with proper power and everything else.

Welcome to the latest round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken Series.

NLS 9, live from the ring.

In qualifying, it was wet initially

but with a lot of traffic, a lot of cars.

You need to get a bit lucky as well

to get a perfectly free lap, which I didn't get.

So we had to start at P3, which I wasn't very happy about

as we're really fast.

I think we'll have to overtake people.

You have to overtake people.

Also knowing how qualifying went, I was not happy with all the traffic.

So I was like: let's get to the lead as fast as possible.

Fascinating guests today.

A superstar is on the grid.

It's the measure of the man that he just wants to race everything he can.

But it's all about racing on the Nordschleife.

He may not win this race, but in Chris Lulham

he has a thunderbolt of a teammate, so they've got every chance.

I'm super excited about my first proper professional race with Max.

We have a fast car and a chance to win.

So that's what we're aiming for.

25 kilometres, toughest circuit in the world.

And 108 cars on the race track.

Max Verstappen is racing a Ferrari.

Lots of Red Bull, a Red Bull-sponsored Ferrari.

Verstappen.com, run by Emil Frey Racing.

An Aston Martin on pole position alongside an Audi.

And then comes the Ferrari. Let's see what happens.

It's a rolling start.

They're being shown the red lights on the gantry at this point

but they turn green now.

And hard onto the throttle will go Max Verstappen

who pulls out from behind the Aston Martin.

It's a four-hour race, three pit stops. Already we're counting down.

Max Verstappen is alongside the Aston Martin and draws level.

He'll try and outbrake the pole-sitting car.

There's a crash further back. A car got piled into the rear.

It was slippery. Just dried out.

There was a crash behind us.

But I was very focused on just trying to keep the lead.

Max Verstappen already in the lead

and he will lead for the first time out of the Mercedes Arena.

And the battle is very much on.

Verstappen, fully focused on the road in front.

A gap of 1.4 seconds over Frank Stippler.

Clearly enjoying himself. These are really, really fast laps.

From the last lap alone, he gained 6 seconds over Frank Stippler.

The gap's out to 16.5 seconds.

Felt good. I was enjoying myself, dealing with the traffic.

The car was flying.

The gap was growing a lot, so that's exactly what you want.

Still, some distance to go

but he's putting in a masterful performance at the front of the race.

Get on the tail, slow down, and pick his way through.

Not that he's shy about overtaking.

Powering down the Döttinger Höhe, four cars in front of him.

They're all in class. He doesn't want to lose a second.

He's sitting on a lead of over 20 seconds.

It's so tight.

Goes on straight, dives into the pitch.

So this will be pit stop time.

The pit stop has a mandatory time.

The NLS pit stops are very long, actually. It's not like F1.

You have almost two minutes, stationary.

Verstappen rejoins the race.

Still very much in a comfortable position.

Max Verstappen. Four-time F1 champion.

That's what he considers his day job.

I think as a team, we really stuck together.

We didn't give up.

I never saw that coming.

In the season, such a turnaround and be back in the hunt

and win actually quite a few more races.

Okay, it's championship back on.

Same result again next week, and Max wins the title.

You said it's a busman's holiday. It's exactly that. Weekends off.

He wants to be in a different racing car

and going just as fast as always.

Chris Lulham will be waiting in the wings here, nerves jangling

thinking he's potentially going to be taking this car over

in the race lead.

A big learning experience

was watching the first two hours of the race.

Watch how he deals with the traffic.

The level of aggression. How much risk do you take?

Risk management is a difficult game to play

in the multi-class environment.

So I set myself the benchmark of his moves

and it gave me the confidence that I could do what he was doing.

He was being very relaxed, probably the most relaxed I'd seen him drive.

55 seconds is now the gap between Max Verstappen...

He's in a hurry!

Almost as if he's been racing here for 20-odd years.

Just drifting it to within a cigarette paper of the armco.

Didn't hit it, and then continued on to Hatzenbach.

The Emil Frey racing Ferrari just bashing out quick laps.

At the moment, the lead is just over a minute now.

Just a few months before, I was sat taking my first race start

in a close cockpit car in a proper race car.

Here's the Ferrari from the lead of the race, Max Verstappen.

And then I was there doing the driver swap with Max.

Jack's going underneath, and indeed Chris Lulham ready to take it over.

So, yeah, the pressure was on.

Back into the race goes the Ferrari

with a lead of a minute and two seconds before the pit stop.

Chris Lulham getting on board. A serious racer in sim.

He stepped up this time to his first full season of GT racing.

- What's up, mate? - Yeah, it was very lovely.

- Super. - Great in the start.

- Completely wet though. - Yeah?

So we boxed, and then next was Chris in the car, basically.

And I could sit and relax a bit.

Now I'm going to relax till the end.

Yeah, it was okay.

Okay, good stuff.

- Keep me posted. - Yeah, will do.

Love you, bye-bye.

It's a four-hour race, three pit stops. Already counting down.

An hour and 40 minutes.

Chris Lulham has now been slightly interrupted by these yellow flags.

He has a run of traffic up across the nose of his race-leading Ferrari.

The gap coming down considerably, in the last lap alone of 30 seconds.

It was a big gain on the race-leading Ferrari.

Certainly on one lap alone, 20 plus seconds

were gained by the chasing Mustang.

We thought for so long in this race, it was a done deal.

The yellow flag is being cleared up before the chasing cars going through.

Really closed the margin down.

It's not over.

Yeah, we had two codes 60 in a bad moment which cost us 2x30 seconds.

Watching Chris racing, I'm more nervous than I am in the car myself

because when you're in control, you know what you're doing.

We managed to turn it around to a point where you're fighting again

for the title until the last round.

We showed them one final time who's boss.

Congrats, what a comeback in the second half of the season.

We can be really proud of that.

So don't be too disappointed. I'm definitely not disappointed.

Thank you very much everyone.

The engine you hear in the background is the turbo-charged Ferrari

pressing on to the end of the lap, to victory.

What a story this is then in global motor sport.

The first time that Max Verstappen and his young teammate of the UK

attacks an NLS race.

They're going to win the race after four hours.

The 57th edition of the ADAC Barbarossa Prize

goes to Max Verstappen and to Chris Lulham.

Good job.

Well done, Max.

Thank you.

That was really good. I mean, not bad for the first time.

Yeah, I thought now we were so unlucky.

When I finished, it was a weight off my shoulders

because there was quite a build-up, logistically, to that event.

After doing all the permit races, the test earlier in the year.

To bring it all home was a really nice and relieving feeling.

These races are perfect to learn.

We needed to grow together.

I entered knowing that the car will be quick

but for me, it's also a learning experience.

For us, it was the perfect opportunity to do that together.

Now, of course, we hope that we can do it more often there.

The journey for Max Verstappen and the green hell, where will it go?

Of course, we really want to race the 24h race.

So hopefully we can do more NLS races next year.

Chris Lulham and Max Verstappen!

I do think that it's nice that the DMSB also allowed

the first steps in getting your license

can be done over the sim racing community.

So you can join their virtual championship

and you can get your start of the permit there

to then continue the rest of the permit on a real track.

It's a start for sim racing, and I think it's nice to see

that it's been taken into account and taken seriously

because for me, it is.

I'm happy, of course, to contribute to that.

I'm soaked.

Fuck me, mate. I'm soaked.

Trouble opening the bottle?

Everyone was already opening it and spraying me

so I'm the last to grab a bottle.

And you couldn't get another one? - Well, what can I do?

If that's the biggest issue, I think you had a good day.