Jeff Ward and Nelson Piquet Jr. came away from the first day of Red Bull GRC Washington DC Presented by Volkswagen victorious, sharing the Supercars heat wins between them after a pair of closely fought races.
Heat 1A saw polesitter Scott Speed move into an early lead but he was continuously hounded by Jeff Ward until the penultimate lap when the Scotsman got by the former Formula One racer.
Ward, making his first start in the series since Daytona, made the pass at the final hairpin and managed to hold onto the lead to take his second career heat win by just under two seconds.
Heat 1B saw Nelson Piquet Jr. take the win over Tanner Foust, his first heat win since the season opener in Fort Lauderdale.
Despite leading from the start, Piquet’s gap to Foust was lowered to 2.3 seconds by the end of the race.
In GRC Lites, Sebastian Eriksson took pole position before going on to win his heat, the other Lites heat was won by Alex Keyes.
