The Nürburgring 24 Hours is this weekend, and it’s getting a lot of attention because this year, Formula 1 star Max Verstappen is in the field.
However, during qualifying on Thursday, there was a terrifyingly close call in which a driver who had to hop out of a car that was on fire was nearly hit by another driver.
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During the session, German driver Alexander Hardt had to bail out of his car after it caught on fire. He stood in a gravel trap, trying to wave to other drivers that his Porsche 911 was sitting on the notoriously treacherous circuit.
However, driver Janina Schall did not see this in time and clobbered the stricken 911 with a Porsche of her own.
Worse yet, she came shockingly close to also hitting Hardt.
That’s a brutal situation.
Obviously, it’s not safe to get out of your car with cars on track, but that’s assuming it’s not on fire. In this case, it was, so Hardt needed to get out of that thing in a hurry, and fortunately, he was able to.
The other problem is that, unlike a lot of circuits we’re used to as North American racing fans that are short enough to have spotters, the Nürburgring is just under 16 miles long. There may have been no way for Schall to know that Hardt’s car was sitting where it was, or that he was standing near it.
Still, you can be sure that this incident will be looked at so that it doesn’t happen again. And, as I mentioned, the Nürburgring is notorious. The “Green Hell” was the site of F1 legend Niki Lauda’s near-fatal crash in 1976.
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Just last month, 66-year-old Juha Miettinen was killed in a crash during a qualifying race for the Nürburgring 24 Hours.
Still, the track is one of the most highly regarded in motorsports, and that’s why it draws the likes of Max Verstappen.
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The race will take place this weekend, and largely thanks to four-time F1 champ Verstappen’s involvement, it has sold out for the first time, according to ESPN.
Verstappen will drive a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which he will share with teammates Dani Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Lucas Auer.