Olsen made a clean start from pole position in his SSR Performance Porsche to lead the field after lap 1, while Winward Mercedes driver Auer got the jump on Thomas Preining's Bernhard Porsche on the run up to Raidillon.
Auer maintained the pressure on Olsen for the entire first stint, keeping the gap under a second with a series of fastest laps. The Austrian then rolled the dice by pitting early on lap eight for his mandatory stop, but the attempted undercut backfired when a fumbled tyre change cost him at least three seconds.
