Tragic accident overshadows 24h Qualifiers race weekend

The 2026 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers were marred by a serious accident that claimed the life of Juha Miettinen on Saturday. Sunday's second race, while clearly overshadowed by the tragic circumstances, offered a positive outlook for the female drivers on track, with the second class podium finish of the season for the Girls Only Team.

Photo credits: Mika Böcker

The first race of the double header was marred by a serious accident with multiple injuries, including the death of driver Juha Miettinen. Sunday's second race, while clearly overshadowed by the tragic circumstances, offered a positive outlook for the female drivers on track, with the second class podium finish of the season for the Girls Only Team.

Several women once again took to the track for the NLS weekend, which also served as qualifying for the 24-hour race. Patricija Stalidzane, Tabea Jünger, and Flavia Pellegrino Fernandes returned to the track, driving respectively the Konrad Lamborghini GT3, the #878 BMW, and the Golf 8 GTI.

There were some line up changes for Girls Only and their Talent Pool car. The Porsche 992 was this time driven by Janina Schall, Carrie Schreiner, Fabienne Wohlwend, and newcomer Michelle Halder. In the Talent Pool, alongside Elena Egger and Siri Hökfelt, Helge Tamm would join the team, temporarily replacing Carmen Kraav. A late entry for the Toyo Tyres Toyota was Miki Koyama, who was not on the initial entry list.

The first red flag of the weekend came during qualifying. Shortly after the start, an accident occurred in the Fuchsröhre section. The notorious kerb, which has been a problem for several years, launched a car and threw it into the guardrail. The driver was uninjured, but the guardrail repair took nearly an hour. The session then continued without further incidents.

After the endurance race for historic vehicles, the grid for the 24-hour qualifying race was prepared. Since rain was expected shortly after the start, the teams prepared a large number of rain tyres. Stalidzane's team placed the Lamborghini in 9th position in the highly competitive GT3 class, which featured 37 cars. Koyama qualified in 48th place overall, just ahead of the Girls Only Porsche in 56th. Pellegrino Fernandes and Jünger were right behind each other in 93rd and 94th, respectively. The Girls Only Talent Pool placed 109th overall.

Despite the impending weather, the start went smoothly in all classes. There were a few minor collisions at the Haken garage, but the field quickly sorted itself out. The GT3 class, in particular, featuring Stalidzane, was fiercely contested at the beginning. Further back, the teams had a somewhat more cautious start. Carrie Schreiner lost some ground in the first tight corners but quickly regained her position. Further back in the field, the teams featuring female drivers were still engaged in minor battles.

After nearly 20 minutes, the race was in full swing. The GT3 cars were already lapping the cars of the third starting group when disaster struck. Red flags flashed and were waved around the track. While the live broadcast and the track announcers were still puzzling over the cause, several paramedics and ambulances were already on their way. A massive crash involving several cars of all classes occurred in the steep section, one of the track's hardest braking points. Siri Hökfelt, in the Girls Only Talent Pool, was also involved in the crash. Reports started to emerge. A vehicle had lost a large amount of oil in this section, leaving the following traffic no chance to react.

Hökfelt was lucky and escaped with only a few dislocated vertebrae. The other drivers also escaped without serious or life-threatening injuries – with the exception of Juha Miettinen. The BMW driver crashed into the wall almost simultaneously and suffered cardiac arrest. Attempts were made at the track to resuscitate him, and paramedics did everything they could. However, the immediate rescue efforts were unsuccessful, and Miettinen subsequently lost his life on his arrive at the circuit's medical centre. The editorial team expresses our deepest condolences to his family and the team.

Meanwhile, the other injured drivers were treated and transported by ambulance and helicopter to the medical center or, in Hökfelt's case, to the hospital. She had contacted the team beforehand, stating that she was mainly unharmed except for some pain. Until this report, the team was on tenterhooks. Radio contact with the car was no longer possible, and there were no pictures regarding the exact details of the accident, none of which mentioned any names.

Furthermore, another car belonging to the team was involved in the crash. To ensure space and safety for the rescue operation, the cars that hadn't yet passed the accident site couldn't proceed and were stuck in a traffic jam in the Klostertal area, extending to the steep section. Among them was a third car from the team, the Girls Only Porsche, driven by Schreiner. It was only through these vehicles that the team initially knew Hökfelt had been freed from her car.

In the hospital, Hökfelt told Sportbladet, a Swedish sports magazine, about the accident from her perspective: “We (she and Juha Miettinen) were very close to each other, the GT3 cars were overtaking us, and then it's always chaos. We were heading into the area called the carousel, and some car in front of us had leaked oil onto the track, but the officials didn't have time to warn us, and I didn't have time to see it either,” she said.

“I got to about 180 km/h and braked, but nothing happened. The pedal went all the way down and I just slid on the fluid. I tried to steer away and felt myself sliding into the tyre barrier. I got caught in the barrier and I’m about to call the team over the radio and say everything’s okay, but then I feel the first car drive into me. Then another one comes, and another one, and another one. Then it stopped. It was nasty. When I look up, I see a blue Porsche blocking my driver’s door, steam is coming out of it. “I’m so incredibly grateful that it didn’t slam into my car harder.”

With the help of track personnel, she managed to get out on the passenger side. She reached out to her father, who was at the track, by phone and informed him before being taken to the hospital.

After hours, the recovery of all the cars was completed, and the other injured were treated. Obviously, after the tragic event the race was not restarted.

Photo credits: Mika Böcker

On Sunday, the second day was supposed to proceed normally, with the exception of a memorial service before the start of the formation lap.

On Sunday, qualifying had to be postponed slightly due to bad weather. On the wet, drying track, the lap times were not very meaningful. Depending on when the lap was driven, the track itself was faster. Some drivers who had been involved in the accident or the resulting traffic jam were still shaken up, so their pace wasn’t as usual.

Stalidzane’s Lamborghini managed to get into 5th place, although this position was only provisional before the Top Qualifying session. There, Paul took over the car on a dry track, securing 16th place overall. Koyama's Toyota started in 40th overall, just behind the GT3 cars. Michelle Halder would start the Girls Only Porsche from 52nd, 10 places ahead of Pellegrino Fernandes‘ Golf. Jünger’s BMW started from 93rd. For obvious reasons, the Girls Only Talent Pool’s BMW was unable to start.

Maximilian Paul got off to a good start in the fiercely competitive GT3 field. Starting from 16th, he moved up to 12th place in the first lap. There were also many overtaking maneuvers in the second starting group. In particular, those who had worse positions on the wet track than would have been possible in the dry were now making significant gains.

Koyama’s Toyota couldn’t maintain its strong qualifying performance and dropped back to 43rd. After the first lap, they were only 2.5 seconds ahead of Halder in the Girls Only Porsche, who had moved up to 44th and made short work of the Toyota in the second lap. Wenisch also got a successful start in the BMW M3 Cup, moving it up to 85th. The Golf driven by Pellegrino Fernandes was no longer able to exploit its strengths and found itself in 80th place, with Schönfeld at the wheel.

Further ahead, Michelle Halder continued to push hard in her Porsche and, on the second lap, she managed to overtake not only the Toyota but also several other cars on the Döttinger Höhe section. Aside from that, the racing was somewhat subdued in most classes. The overall leaders were battling it out at the front, while further back, the major battles were confined to the Grand Prix circuit.

Many position changes were facilitated by performance differences compared to qualifying. Beyond that, many positions were mostly already locked in. The Konrad Lamborghini made its first pit stop early, thus removing itself from GT3 traffic. However, this also dropped them back to 31st place. Next up, with a modified strategy, was the Girls Only team. To optimally distribute their four drivers, they didn’t complete their stints in full, but instead pitted after six laps.

Schreiner took over; the team had hoped to reduce their minimum pit stop time this way, but it turned out that the e-fuels refueling station was slower than Black Falcon’s, so they still lost time. The entries of Jünger, Pellegrino Fernandes, and Koyama stuck to their strategy and drove their usual distances.

Towards the end of the first hour, the track conditions became rougher. The first serious Code 60 zone appeared in the Brünnchen section. There was also a 120 km/h zone at the Ex-mühle. By that point, the Golf had already climbed back up to 77th place and found its pace, while the BMW M2 was making slow progress, moving up to 82nd. The Toyota remained in the chasing pack of GT3 cars. The Girls Only team held onto 42nd place after their pit stop. Patricija Stalidzane, who had taken over the Lamborghini, had now reached 21st place in her charge through the field.

A short time later, there were Code 60 zones in both the Metzgesfeld and Klostertal sections up to the Steilstrecke. The latter section, in particular, caused some concern among the teams due to the previous day’s events. However, the zones also brought many classes back together somewhat.

Wenisch was thus involved in a five-way battle that lasted until the Grand Prix track and gained him two positions after the Hohenrain chicane. Meanwhile, in the Adenauer Forest, a BMW slid into the grass and rejoined the race directly in front of Schreiner. She immediately overtook it, but was then overtaken again by another BMW just before the upcoming Code 60 zone.

Carrie remained in 42nd place overall, just under 27 seconds behind the car in front.

Schneider took over the second stint in the Golf but maintained his position. Wenisch, thanks to his long stint, had now climbed to 66th place and was fighting for the lead in the BMW M3 Cup. He and Schreiner continued to work their way forward during their stints. Schreiner resumed her charge at the entrance to Hatzenbach and managed to climb back up to 36th place in the following laps before pitting.

At the halfway point of the race, Fabienne Wohlwend took over the GirlsOnly Porsche and rejoined the track in 39th place overall. While the previous Code 60 zones had now been cleared, a new one had been added in the Bergwerk section. Stalidzane had meanwhile dropped back to 23rd after her stop.

Things however went sideways when, not long after, she had an incident in her Lamborghini and ended the race on the recovery vehicle. With a clever first stint, Schneider had already helped the Golf up to 67th place. The BMW also made its first pit stop, and Tabea Jünger maintained her second-place position in class, sitting in 79th overall.

Photo credits: Mika Böcker

Through strategy and great speed, Wohlwend was able to advance the Porsche first to 36th, and then to 32nd a lap later. From this point on, catching up became more difficult, as she was battling against the Porsche Cup cars, which used the same base car as her Porsche.

After the Lamborghini’s retirement, things also went wrong for the Golf: Schönfeld had ignored a Code 60 and the result was a 75-second time penalty and 3 DMSB points for the driver. This dropped the Golf far back on the now clear track. A semblance of calm returned to the track. At the same time, the chases for the second car intensified.

In the final laps of her stint, Wohlwend closed the gap to the Porsche Cup car in front of her and battled for two laps to overtake it for 30th position. She repeatedly closed the gap, but couldn’t get past on the Nordschleife. Finally, on Döttinger Höhe, she managed to overtake it, just in time to pit for the final hour.

In the last hour, incidents increased again. It started with a Code 60 in the section between Flugplatz and Ahremberg. Soon after, a longer one appeared in the Breidscheit section. Several cars were scattered throughout this and the following sections. The best-placed female driver remained the Girls Only Porsche, now with Janina Schall in 32nd.

Koyama's Toyota followed in the 40s, but now led its class. Pellegrino Fernandes had taken over for the final stint and was battling with Hill in Jünger’s BMW for 67th place. They were in 3rd and 2nd place in their classes, respectively, and only 40 seconds apart on the track. Hill not only closed this gap, but with two laps to go, he overtook the Golf for a better overall position. Schall, meanwhile, managed to reclaim 29th place, but couldn’t catch the Porsche Cup ahead, which pulled away with a faster pit stop.

This nevertheless marked the second class podium finish of the season for the Girls Only Team in second. Miki Koyama’s Toyota won the SP8T class, finishing 31st overall. Flavia Pellegrino Fernandes finished 68th overall and 3rd in her class, while Tabea Jünger secured the silver medal in class and a 64th-place overall finish.

The next NLS race takes place in June. However, for many teams, the season continues in May with the highlight of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, which is not part of the NLS series. We hope to see a large number of female participants there as well, and that all those injured in the accident will have fully recovered by then.