After two green-flag laps, polesitter Christer Joens in the #4 C Abt Racing Audi led the field through T1, but was passed on the inside by Christopher Mies in the second-place-starting #28 Land Motorsport Audi. Joens was back in front by the end of the first lap, however, but once again Mies got past through the first turn.
A total of 98 cars took the start, with the #202 MARC Mazda3 and #152 BMW M235i both too badly damaged after earlier incidents. On track, Laurens Vanthoor was looking racy in third in the #19 WRT Audi, with Joe Osborne in the #14 Optimum machine making it R8s 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the early stages. Jeroen Bleekemolen held fifth in the #2 Black Falcon Mercedes, with Peter Kox sixth in the #11 Scuderia Praha Ferrari.
SP3 class polesitter Bradley Ellis held on to his lead in the Optimum Ginetta, but in the BMW Cup class, Max Partl moved from second to first in the #146 Sorg Rennsport M235i. In the Porsche Cup class, Klaus Bachler in the #60 car led a Black Falcon 1-2, ahead of Lechner Racing Middle East’s Jaap van Lagen.
There was an early spin in traffic for the #18 V8 Racing Mercedes of Duncan Huisman, necessitating an early stop for new tyres, but the car was otherwise undamaged.
With 15 minutes elapsed the leading A6 Am runner was Jordan Grogor in the #88 Dragon Racing Ferrari, running 18th overall. Fredriki Lestrup’s MINI headed the A2 touring-car class, while A3 was headed by Bernard Kuepper in the #101 BMW M3. In SP2, Karim Al Azahri topped the order in a GDL Porsche, while the first of the four TCR SEATs was the #125 NKPP machine.
Around the same time, the battle between the top three Audis continued, with Joens get in front of Mies again momentarily and Vanthoor keeping a close watching brief in third. Further back, the V8 Racing Corvette made progress in the hands of Nicky Pastorelli, getting ahead of Kox’s Ferrari to claim sixth.
Having started the #16 Black Falcon Mercedes SLS from the very back of the 98-car field, Adam Christodoulou made hay and had the car at the back of the GT runners in 25th overall by lap 15.
No sooner had he done that, though, when there was a serious crash for the #78 MRS GT Porsche Cup car, which lost it on the main straight, hit the wall and rebounded across the track (above). The incident caused the race’s first Code 60 period and also involved the #282 Nova Race Ginetta.
In the ensuing pitstops, Scuderia Praha made a tactical swap of starting driver Kox for Jiri Pisarik in the #11 Ferrari, while numerous other entries dived in. Messy debris from a foam advertising hoarding strewn across the track meant the Code 60 remained in place until shortly before the end of the first hour, with 23 hours and nine minutes to run when the green flags flew.
As the first hour ticked over, shuffling of the order due to pit stops meant Osborne was leading in the #14 Optimum Audi (above), ahead of Vincent Radermacker in the #6 Gravity Racing Mercedes and Vanthoor in the #19 Audi. Early lead battlers Mies and Joens were fourth and fifth respectively.
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