British GT Snetterton: Phil Keen tops the charts in practice

Barwell Motorsport topped the timesheets in both practice session as the Intelligent Money British GT Championship field powered through the wet conditions at Norfolk’s Snetterton Circuit.

In GT4, it was McLaren team HCC Motorsport stacking the front of the class as it pipped TF Sport to the top in both sessions.

Typically for Britain in October, rain was ever-present with the grid quickly settling in to what is forecast to be an entirely wet weekend.

Adapting quickest to the conditions in the first 60-minute practice were the two Barwell Motorsport Lamborghinis as Phil Keen powered ahead of team-mate Sandy Mitchell to put the two Huracáns on top. Third went the way of Donington 1 race-winners Scott Malvern and Nick Jones, the Team Parker Racing Bentley Continental GT3 more comfortable in the wet than the dry.

Championship leaders Sam De Haan and Patrick Kujala finished fourth in their RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

GT4 was topped by Jordan Collard in the #58 HHC McLaren 570S, but was only 0.045s clear of Jamie Caroline’s TF Sport Aston Vantage GT4. The second Aston of Patrick Kibble finished FP1 in fourth, the two bright yellow machines split by Euan Hankey’s Balfe Motorsport McLaren.

A series is quick laps early on in the second session shot Patrick Kuljala’s RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the top of the charts with a 1.5-second gap – a gap quickly decreased to just over two tenths by Sandy Mitchell in the #78 Barwell Lamborghini.

After a mid-session increase of rain settled down again, Yelmer Buurman came out towards the end to take third. But it was again Phil Keen who bested them all when he set a 2:09.217 in the dying moments of practice, moving the early pacesetters one place down.

Kuljala’s time was enough to finish second fastest, while the Barwell sister car of Sandy Mitchell made it a Lamborghini 1-3. The #6 Ram Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Buurman ended in fourth, while the #96 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 grabbed fifth at the line.

The top of GT4 changed all in the last 15 minutes. With a quick 2:17.138 Jordan Collard went fastest at end of practice, demoting team-mate Chris Wesemael to second before Daniel Vaughan at the chequers split the two McLarens with the #97 TF Sport Aston. Patrick Kibble, who had topped the charts since the start of the session, finished fourth while Will Moore took fifth in the Academy Motorsport Mustang.

Qualifying for Sunday’s two sprint races starts at 16:00 local (17:00 CET).