Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams topped both practice sessions ahead of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship’s blue-riband Silverstone 500.

The returning 2 Seas Motorsport team took honours in the first 60-minute session, while RAM Racing topped the second.

In GT4, the debuting Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin and the Speedworks Toyota Supra shared the spoils.

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GT3

In the opening practice, it was the returning TF Sport team that set the early pace as Marco Sørensen put the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 up the sharp-end, but behind him was a Mercedes feast as Yelmer Buurman’s RAM car and Sam Neary in the Team Abba Racing entry were within spitting distance.

Just after the halfway mark, Martin Kodrić powered the #14 to the top of the times as the track started to rubber in after rain showers hit Silverstone overnight. 

He was under late threat from Charlie Eastwood – rapid in the second of the TF Sport Astons he’s sharing with Bonamy Grimes – but the Northern Irishman rounded out the opening session in second.

The second session started out as a strong one for Lamborghini as Dennis Lind put his Barwell Motorsport Huracán up to the top, with Sandy Mitchell regularly swapping the first position with him in the sister car. 

But then, much like FP1, Mercedes runners started to power themselves up the order again as Buurman put in what is the second-fastest time of the day so far with a 1m59.060 – just 0.023s down on Kodrić’s marker earlier in the morning. 

Mitchell headed the Lamborghinis which finished second and third, with Sørensen again at the sharp-end in the Vantage he’s sharing with Giacomo Petrobelli.

Notable elsewhere in the order the Bentley Continental GT3 – being run this weekend by Kelvin Fletcher and Martin Plowman’s own Paddock Motorsport squad – finished eighth in the combined practice times, beating out Marcus Clutton’s best times in the Enduro Motorsport McLaren 720S. 

The only disruption in the first two hours of running came from Richard Neary spinning the Abba Mercedes into the gravel at Stowe just before the mid-way point of second practice.

GT4

Darren Turner’s late lap in the Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage to top Free Practice One has proved to be the class’s fastest time of the weekend to date – his 2m11.175s topping Richard William’s long-time benchmark in the opening hour of practice.

It was equally towards the close that Scott McKenna put in the time that topped FP2 for Toyota Gazoo Racing UK, as he pipped Turner by 0.100s in the Speedworks-prepared Toyota GR Supra. 

The second session was equally strong for Williams, who shared the Steller Motorsport Audi R8 LMS with Sennan Fielding – the latter setting the third-fastest time in the afternoon session. 

Also running up towards the front in both sessions was the team that dominated at Brands Hatch – Century Motorsport. The two BMW M4 GT4 Evos ran in the top six in both – mixing it with another pacesetter from Brands, the Assetto Motorsport Ginetta G56, on both occasions. 

Just outside of that top six were the Cicely Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 and the Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang – both having solid if unremarkable runs through practice.

Notably, it was a bad run for the five McLaren 570S crews. All of them finished bottom of the timing sheets in both sessions with the #40 Fox Motorsport car of Jamie Stanley and Nik Halstead missing a good chunk of the first practice with suspension troubles. 

Qualifying gets underway at 4pm UK time (5pm CET). 

 
 

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