German Alexander Hardt had parked his #900 Black Falcon Porsche on the edge of the circuit amid mechanical issues.
Rather than retreating to safety, Hardt remained in the gravel trap just metres from the circuit as he attempted to get the attention of marshals.
His car was then struck by the all-female #146 WS Porsche entry driven by Janina Schall, ripping a wheel from the Black Falcon machine amid a burst of flames.
Schall emerged unscathed and was seen speaking to Hardt at the side of the circuit.
Hardt was later fined €300 ($480 AUD) for failing to move to safety in a timely manner, while Schall was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Schall’s team has, though, confirmed to Motorsport.com that the #146 Porsche is out of the weekend due to the damage it sustained.
Very close call in Q1, but both drivers are okay thankfully. #24hNBR pic.twitter.com/RFDyh5dhat
— Nürburgring (@nuerburgring) May 14, 2026
The scary moment came at the start of a huge weekend for the Nurburgring event, which is set for a sold out attendance due to the presence of Formula 1 star Max Verstappen.
Verstappen set the third-fastest time in Qualifying 1 aboard the #3 Mercedes-AMG he shares with Lucas Auer, Jules Gounon and Dani Juncadella.
His time of 8m18.539s was 3.5s slower than the benchmark set by the #80 Mercedes of Fabian Shiller, Maro Engel, Maxime Martin and Luca Stolz.
The flying Mercedes were split by the #1 BMW of Raffaele Marciello, Jordan Pepper, Kelvin van der Linde and Augusto Farfus.
Those times stood as the fastest of the day due to wet weather in the later Qualifying 2 session held on Thursday evening.
Qualifying continues on Friday. Check out Speedcafe’s below guide for how to follow the Nurburgring weekend.
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