Team Hungary topped the Auto Slalom leaderboard after the first day of action at the FIA Motorsport Games, though fading light at Circuit Paul Ricard prevented the full field from completing their runs.
Team Germany was among the few nations to get both drivers out on-track. Claire Schonborn was fastest of all in the first session, while Marcel Hellberg was 11th, but a number of penalties for hitting cones meant that Hungary moved to the top. Martin Bognar was the only member of their crew to run, circulating in 1m10.315s and incurring no penalties. Team Georgia placed third thanks to Mevludi Meladze.
A second session at 17:00 CEST was called short due to fading light at Circuit Paul Ricard. Not all nations were able to run, but they will have an opportunity to do so on Friday morning.
Germany leads 16 nations into next phase of competition
With a full set of runs complete the German squad assumed top spot thanks to an impressively clean set of runs from Schonborn and Hellberg. They were 2.834s clear of Team Hungary, with Team Latvia in third and Team Slovakia fourth. These were the first of four nations that will compete in tomorrow's round of 16, with Team Peru snatching the final spot ahead of the unfortunate Brazilians.
The next stage will see the competitors whittled down to eight. At this point a knockout process begins, culminating in Sunday afternoon's medal-deciding final at 13:00.