The pair traded places throughout a 30-minute session that began and ended under heavy rain before the Oregon Team driver claimed the bragging rights well after the chequered flag had fallen.
Roda, whose Renault RS01 is making its Blancpain GT Sports Club and SRO championship debut this weekend, made much of the early running while the other 22 drivers acclimatised to both the circuit and tricky conditions. Indeed, his initial fastest laps – both 2m46s – remained untroubled until Broniszewski hit the front with little under 10 minutes remaining.
The pair traded places and fastest sector times thereafter until the Pole, who is also competing in the Total 24 Hours of Spa this weekend, looked to have secured top-spot as the chequered flag flew. But Roda wasn’t done and subsequently beat the Kessel Ferrari 458 GT3’s time by 1.227s thanks to his 2m40.073s.
Broniszewski’s main championship rival Mario Cordoni was a further four seconds adrift aboard his AF Corse Ferrari 458 GT3 after also improving late on. He ended up one place and 0.5s quicker than Team Malucelli’s Marco Galassi.
Marco Zanuttini made it four Ferraris in the top-five after also setting his personal best right at the end, while Yves-Claude Gosselin’s Audi R8 LMS completed the first half-dozen.
Iron Cup points leader Martin Lanting had been as high as third at one point before slipping to 10th overall. However, he remained the fastest of the drivers aged 60 and over with a time 0.9s faster than Stephen Earle could manage. Louis Philippe Soenen completed the class’ top-three in 15th overall.
Blancpain GT Sports Club’s second free practice session gets underway at 10:35 local time this morning ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session and Qualifying Race.
Click here for the complete FP1 classification.