Sandy Mitchell smashed the unofficial Intelligent Money British GT Championship lap record as he powered Barwell Motorsport to pole for the blue-riband Silverstone 500, heading a Lamborgini 1-2.

BRITISH GT SILVERSTONE 500: ENTRY LIST | LIVE TIMING |LIVESTREAM | PRACTICE REPORT | QUALIFYING REPORT

In GT4, a stellar performance from the Steller Motorsport Audi R8 LMS crew of Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding absolutely obliterated the competition in GT4, as they took pole in the secondary class by more than 1.4seconds over their rivals. 

GT3

Mitchell and team-mate Adam Balon took pole in their Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo by more than three-quarters of a second as the 2020 champion showed his class and obliterated the unofficial lap record – the official is only set in the race – as he put in a 1m56.765sec, to combine for a 3m56.233sec. 

The fact that Barwell was able to dominate qualifying was thanks to Balon’s stint in the Am portion of qualifying as he put in a solid opening time which was fourth overall in his section – only a tenth and a bit off the fastest time. 

Indeed, the fastest time in the Am session came from the team that will ultimately join Barwell on the front-row and that is the Redline Racing Lamborghini. 

Compared to the troubles the Italian cars went through at Oulton Park, Silverstone suits them down to the ground. That was emphasised by Alex Malykhin demonstrating his ever-increasing speed by putting the Redline Huracán to the top of Am qualifying. Dorlin then secured the team’s best British GT start by setting the second-fastest time in the 10-minute Pro element of qualifying

He was lucky though. James Cottingham and Lewis Williamson both put in really rapid runs in their 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 and, really, were unfortunate to be third. If Williamson could have found another 0.003sec on one of his laps, he would have unseated Dorlin and snatched away second on the grid.

Joining 2 Seas on the second-row is the older generation Mercedes-AMG GT3 as Sam Neary put in a blistering lap in the green and black machine to build on father Richard’s solid start. He ensured the Team Abba squad will start in fourth and in a great position to make a good start tomorrow – especially with Richard’s always strong starts.

Fifth is yet another Mercedes, this time the fastest of the RAM Racing cars, with Ian Loggie and Callum Macleod another three-tenths down on the car ahead but in a decent position – Loggie’s no slouch at the start and after bagging good points in the season-opener, he’ll be happy to be close to the front of the grid and with an opportunity for another decent points haul.

Despite showing decent pace in Free Practice, the fastest of the McLaren 720S GT3s was only in sixth as Joe Osborne made a welcome return to British GT alongside Nick Moss in the Optimum Motorsport entry. They were only half-a-tenth ahead of Sky Tempesta Racing – this weekend being run by Gruppe M – as Chris Froggatt couldn’t find any more time. He is alongside Kevin Tse, who was second in the Am session, in the Mercedes-AMG.

Bentley qualified eighth, Will Tregurtha benefitting from the sheer grunt of the Assetto Motorsport Continental to squeeze onto the fourth row in their fully liveried car after borrowing Paddock Motorsport’s old Bentley for the Oulton Park races.

Despite a spin on her first push lap, Flick Haigh will start ninth in the second the 2 Seas Motorsport entries, with Jonny Adam confusing many of us by completing his first British GT qualifying session in something other than an Aston Martin. Indeed, it was 2010 when he last drove something other than an Aston, when he drove a one-off race in the Ginetta G50 Cup at Knockhill.

Rounding out the top 10 was Garage 59, with Alexander West and Marvin Kirchhöfer continuing to display their solid pace to put their McLaren bang in the middle of the field.

Only 20 cars completed the session as the Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R is awaiting a new gearbox to get delivered to them after issues in the opening practice, which also denied them the chance of any running in FP2.

GT4

Steller Motorsport put in a stellar performance as Williams and Fielding showed no mercy whatsoever to the rest of the GT4 class as they demolished the class lap record and left the rest of the field chasing shadows.

Coming out late into the session, which seems to be standard procedure for the team, Williams was on his best form around the Silverstone circuit as he powered 0.723sec clear of early leader Marco Signoretti in the Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang. 

While his 2m09.721sec was a remarkable time in itself, Fielding went out and decided to kick that time into the dust – as well as the times for the rest of the class – as he went even quicker with a 2m09.114sec. The end result? A combined time that was 1.405sec quicker than the rest of the field.

And it’s not like the rest of the field weren’t trying. Building on Signoretti’s first session stormer, Matt Cowley got behind the wheel of the Mustang and set a brilliant 2m09.796sec to go second fastest in the second part of GT4 qualifying and second on the grid too. 

His rapid lap was the knockout blow in a remarkable scrap he and Signoretti had with the R Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 duo of Josh Miller and Jamie Day throughout qualifying. In both sessions the duos swapped times and battled throughout for who would be on the outside of the front-row, the Mustang ultimately prevailing by 0.088sec.

Fourth went to the Valluga Racing Porsche 718 Cayman RS Clubsport, which has been on good-form all day, with Ross Wylie and Matthew Graham just 0.178sec down on R Racing and about the same margin ahead of Will Burns and Jack Brown in the Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4. 

Sixth – and pole in Pro-Am – went to Newbridge Motorsport’s Matt Topham and Darren Turner, who will be hoping the extra Silver Cup time penalties the teams ahead have to serve at every pitstop during the three-hour race will benefit them as they look to repeat last year’s brilliant victory in their Aston Martin.

Seventh went to the second Century BMW of Tom Rawlings and Chris Salkeld, while the Assetto Ginetta G56 GT4 was eighth – fading slightly after a great opening session from Freddie Tomlinson where they were running in the top four.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing UK Supra of Tom Edgar and – new addition for this weekend – Jordan Collard, was ninth. They were just 0.069sec clear of Seb Hopkins and Jamie Orton in the Team Parker Porsche Cayman, which rounded out the top ten.

Tomorrow’s (Sunday) three-hour race gets underway at 11.30am UK time (12.30pm in Europe) and you can watch all the action on GT REPORT’s livestream here, you won’t want to miss it.

 
 

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