Frijns pips Schmid to pace Free Practice 1 in Hungary

Frijns pips Schmid to pace Free Practice 1 in Hungary

A late flying lap from Robin Frijns was enough to give WRT top spot in first practice ahead of this weekend’s penultimate Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup round at the Hungaroring.

The Dutch driver produced two quick times in the closing minutes to first move his Audi R8 up to second before finding another tenth next time around. His best of 1m43.980s was ultimately enough to beat Clemens Schmid by just 0.047s after the HTP Motorsport driver deposed the sister Mercedes-AMG driven by Bernd Schneider and Jules Szymkowiak late on.

Michael Meadows and Dries Vanthoor topped the first half of practice reserved for Bronze and Silver-graded drivers, and the WRT pair improved again to end up fourth fastest overall. Their best was four tenths down on Frijns’ benchmark but 0.2s faster than their WRT colleagues Enzo Ide and Frederic Vervisch, whose R8s completed the first half dozen.

Audi’s pace was further reinforced by ISR who made it five R8s in the top-seven, while Mercedes-AMG remained the only other manufacturer in the first eight positions thanks to HTP’s Maxi Buhk and Dominik Baumann.

Earlier, the 40-minute Bronze and Silver session was cut short when Niki Mayr-Melnhof’s Phoenix Racing Audi crashed heavily just after Turn 11. 

The day’s second 80-minute practice session begins at 14:40 local time.

Click here for the complete FP1 classification.