Proposed is a valve drive for an internal combustion engine, having a gas exchange valve (11) and having a valve actuating element (4) which has a contact face (8) for an end face (9) on a valve shank (10) of the gas exchange valve (11) which is actuated in the opening and closing direction by the valve actuating element (4). Here, the contact face (8) and/or the end face (9) should be provided with a wear prevention layer (12) which is composed of at least one metal-free amorphous hydrocarbon layer with sp2 and sp3 hybridized carbon.