Verstappen manages two wins in one day thanks to iRacing N24

Max Verstappen is known to participate in sim racing events during downtime from his busy F1 schedule. Impressively, this weekend the three-time world champion won both the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix and the Nürburgring 24-hour on iRacing. ! These …

Max Verstappen is known to participate in sim racing events during downtime from his busy F1 schedule. Impressively, this weekend the three-time world champion won both the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix and the Nürburgring 24-hour on iRacing.

On Friday, Team Redline announced that Verstappen would be driving the No. 20 BMW GT3, and naturally his fans wondered how he would participate during the F1 race weekend.

The Dutchman had a special racing simulator made that would be small enough to fit in his motorhome close to the Imola circuit.

“We were supposed to ship it in a Formula 2 trailer with MP Motorsport, but the sim was just a tiny bit too big, so it didn’t fit, but they helped us out greatly,” said Atze Kerkhof, Director of Team Redline.

MP Motorsport came up with a solution and sent the sim rig with a flower vendor who was headed to Imola anyway.

“The sim got shipped in a bus or in a trailer with flowers to Imola… He had everything pre-connected, so basically it was almost plug-and-play,” Kerkof said.

Verstappen took pole position in Imola qualifying, which ended at 5:00 p.m. CEST. Meanwhile, his Redline teammate Diogo Pinto was starting the 24-hour race. By 8:45 p.m. Verstappen was driving his first two-and-a-half hour night stint at the Nürburgring.

Verstappen racing in his motorhome at Imola from Team Redline Twitch Stream

After some sleep and solid stints by Pinto, Chris Lulham, and Florian Lebigre, Verstappen returned for another two hours at “the Ring” before doing 63 laps around Imola in his Red Bull.

At the end of his second and final stint, he joined the Discord channel with Twitch stream commentator Luke Crane and Team Redline teammates.

“Right, mate, that was lovely,” said Verstappen. Crane congratulated him on a nice final stint and Verstappen replied, “Yeah, extended the gap a bit, very lovely… I have to go.”

Chris Lulham drove the final stint for the No. 20 and secured the win for Team Redline after 24 hours. Fifteen minutes later, Verstappen took the green flag at Imola.

The Dutchman dominated the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix; McLaren driver Lando Norris was a close second and Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari.