British GT Donington Park: Enduro and Barwell set the practice pace

Championship leaders Dennis Lind and Leo Machitski set the pace in practice for the final round of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship as they went fastest in Free Practice Two and were denied by just 0.007sec from doing the same in the first, pipped to the top by Enduro Motorsport’s Marcus Clutton.

In GT4, Jamie Caroline twice set the pace for Toyota Gazoo Racing UK, but lost ten minutes of the second session thanks to two stop/go penalties for track limits violations.

BRITISH GT DONINGTON PARK: ENTRY LIST | OULTON PARK GALLERY | TOLMAN RETURNS

Free Practice One

Marcus Clutton illustrated the pace of his McLaren 720S GT3 as he set the pace early on at a freezing cold Donington circuit. His fastest lap just five minutes into the session – a 1m26.473sec – proved to be unbeatable as teams focused more on the set-up for tomorrow’s two-hour race.

It was a pretty tight margin, though, as championship leader Dennis Lind put in a stormer of a lap in the Barwell Lamborghini to finish the opening hour of running just 0.007sec off the pace and hinting at what could be a thrilling race if this pace carries on.

Throw into the mix the Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Scott Malvern, who finished FP1 in third just a tenth off the pace with Sandy Mitchell only 0.004sec behind that in the second of the Barwell Huracáns.

Euan Hankey shook off any rust that might have formed since his last British GT appearance as he took fifth in the Team Rocket RJN McLaren 720S he’s sharing with Mia Flewitt this weekend, having set the exact same time as WPI Motorsport’s Phil Keen – the latter sixth as he set his time later into the session.

Seventh and eighth went to the pair of father-and-son racers with Stewart and Lewis Proctor sticking their Balfe car a fraction ahead of newly-crowned GT Cup champions Richard and Sam Neary.

Title contenders rounded out the top ten, with RAM Racing ahead of Beechdean AMR thanks to Yelmer Buurman’s quicker lap early on.

Jamie Caroline used every inch of the circuit to propel the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK Supra to the top of the GT4, more than half-a-second clear of Charlie Robertson in the same Assetto Motorsport Ginetta G56 which caused the session-ending red flag while driven by Mark Sansom.

Third went to GT Cup regulars Bradley Ellis and David Holloway in their Century Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage, Ellis less than a tenth slower than Robertson.

Steller Motorsport was fourth, and fastest of the Silver Cup entries, as Richard Williams powered ahead of Darren Turner in the Newbridge Motorsport Vantage.

Notable at the bottom of the order, newly-crowned GT4 champions Gus Burton and Will Burns were dead last of the runners having suffered problems throughout the session. The entry list is already one short, having lost one car – the Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4, which had engine problems prior to the weekend.

Free Practice Two

Beaten to the punch in FP1, Dennis Lind ensured the #63 Barwell Lamborghini finished the morning of practices on top as he blitzed the field – almost three tenths faster than team-mate Sandy Mitchell.

At the start of the session, it was Clutton once again who put down the early marker in the Enduro McLaren before Phil Keen powered clear in the WPI entry.

It was then a battle of the Italian machines as first Mitchell and then Lind lowered the benchmark to the fastest time of the weekend to date, the Dane stopping the clock with a 1m26.616sec.

Mitchell took second, but felt Euan Hankey breathing down his neck in the closing stages. The McLaren driver lit up the timing screens to move the RJN 720S up to third.

Fourth went the way of the Nearys, recovering time having had a late start to the session sorting an issue in the Team ABBA Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. It was Sam who set the team’s 1m27.160sec.

Early pacesetter Keen slipped down the field as other drivers extracting some extra tenths at the close, he finished fifth ahead of Yelmer Buurman in the RAM Racing Mercedes.

Clutton – joined by Morgan Tillbrook – took seventh from Scott Malvern at the close, while Jonny Adam and Lewis Proctor rounded out the top ten in what was a relatively quieter session for the teams in the lower end of the GT3 category, with teams electing to focus on strategy and pitstop practice.

That wasn’t quite the same plan the Speedworks-run Toyota Supra went with, as Jamie Caroline once again stormed his way to the top spot. He did get up to a spot of mischief mind you, as he was twice given five-minute stop/go penalties for track limits violations – one carried over from FP1, and the other was for repeated pings in the second session.

Despite losing ten minutes, it didn’t give rivals a chance to unseat him from the top but Will Moore ran things tighter than the first session as he finished second – 0.159sec down in the Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang.

Mike Simpson, making his first race start in almost two years in a second Ginetta G56, proved there’s no rust on him as he took third in GT4 a tenth faster than the Steller Motorsport Audi R8 LMS.

There was more Ginetta up in the sharp-end as Charlie Robertson once again put in a quick pace in the Assetto G56 to take fifth.

Qualifying gets underway at 4.15pm UK time (5.15pm CEST).