NLS4 - the latest Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) race featuring Max Verstappen - has been "suspended until further notice" due to a multi-car incident after less than half an hour of racing.

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Saturday's Nordschleife event had only been running for two laps when the four-hour race was red-flagged.

It emerged this was due to a multi-car pile-up at the Steilstrecke section of the Nordschleife, which officials said involved seven cars.

The race clock continued to tick down until the red flag before race control issued the “suspended until further notice” message over an hour into the stoppage with a statement from the organisers then saying that "rescue operations for several injured drivers are currently in full swing".

It’s unclear whether the NLS4 race will restart. Verstappen's team-mate Lucas Auer had taken the start and was running ninth at the time of the incident, in which their car was not involved. The intention was that Verstappen would drive the second part of the afternoon-into-evening race to get experience of the track and cars after dark ahead of his Nurburgring 24 Hours bid next month.

A large number of undamaged cars were stuck on track behind the incident, but began returning to the pits almost an hour and a half into the stoppage.

Another race in the series with the same teams and drivers - NLS5 - is scheduled to take place on Sunday afternoon.