2 Seas Motorsport took a front-row lock out for the opening British GT Championship race of 2025 as GT3 newcomer Charles Dawson stormed to pole alongside Kiern Jewiss, while teammates Kevin Tse and Maxi Götz took second in their Mercedes-AMG GT3. 

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GT4 went the way of practice pace-setters Mahiki Racing as Aiden Neate and Josh Miller held off the threat of Optimum Motorsport’s McLaren Arturas to take pole for tomorrow’s two-hour race.

GT3

Charles Dawson is making his debut in GT3 this weekend, but watching his laps in the 2 Seas machine you would have been excused for thinking he was an old-hand in the three-pointed star. 

From the very start, Dawson was putting in decent times with a 1m26.488sec a handy couple of tenths ahead of Tse, but the latter was finding pace quickly in the eye-catching spotty blue machine and his improved lap of 1m25.931sec – the first to break into the 1m25s – was looking like a solid benchmark for Dawson to try and beat.

But beat he did. Firstly he went down into the 1m25.4s to give himself half-a-second of an advantage but – not ready to quit – his final lap of a 1m25.234sec gave co-driver Jewiss the best possible opportunity to convert provisional pole into confirmed pole. 

That was never in doubt. As the laps came in, it was clear that even with the experience of the Pros compared to the Ams in the first part of qualifying there wasn’t going to be a miracle from anyone behind and even with Jewiss setting the fourth fastest individual time, there wasn’t going to be enough for anyone else to upset the balance. 

There was a threat to 2 Seas’ one-two with Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam pressuring the Mercedes in their Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage, with the former setting the third-fastest time in the first session. 

Such was the speed of the Pros, and Götz’ experience in the AMG, that the Aston team actually slipped slightly to fifth even though Adam’s time was only four-tenths off the fastest time.

That’s because Sandy Mitchell – one of the fastest men over a single lap – made the most of Alex Martin’s decent opening time to propel the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 into third, 0.801sec down on Dawson & Jewiss’s combined time. 

Fourth went the way of Optimum Motorsport’s Morgan Tillbrook and Marvin Kirchhöfer, the last of the crews within a second of the leading aggregate in their McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. 

The next closest McLaren lines up sixth as Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton put in a solid qualifying session in the Orange Racing by JMH machine to give themselves a great opportunity to pick off some places in the opening two-hour race of the year. 

Sam Neary will probably kick himself that he couldn’t find an extra fraction of a second in his Team Abba Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 as he ended qualifying seventh alongside father Richard. Just 0.036sec down, even just one kilometre an hour more down the straight could have given the pair a spot on the third row.

Barwell’s second Lamborghini piloted by Matt Topham and Hugo Cook took eighth, ahead of GT Cup 100 winner Mark Smith in the Paddock Motorsport McLaren he shares with team boss Martin Plowman. 

On his return to British GT, Nick Jones rounds out the top 10 alongside Sven Müller in his Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R. 

GT4

Considering the form showed in the first two practice sessions, it seemed as though the Lotuses might have faded slightly come qualifying for the first race of British GT’s 33rd season, but Aiden Neate and Josh Miller wrung the neck of their Mahiki Racing Lotus Emira to ensure the best possible start.

In the opening session, it was a battle between Neate and Marc Warren – in the Optimum Artura – for the top spot, as the latter defied his Am status in a three-way fight which also included the second Optimum entry of Harry George. 

The trio traded times, but Neate was the only driver to drop into the 1m32s with Warren coming close with a 1m33.167sec which seemed like enough for second but for George’s penultimate lap which squeezed him into second and an advantage of 0.090sec heading into the second 10-minute session. 

That final session showed why Warren’s co-driver Jack Brown is well in with a chance of taking his second British GT4 title as he dug deep and put in laps well within the ’32s to put the #90 on provisional pole, even with Luca Hopkinson looking to build on George’s opening session lap and snatch pole himself.

Despite a slightly slower start as he got his eye in, Miller’s carried-over advantage of a quarter-of-a-second was always going to be of benefit to him and even with the fifth-fastest individual time in his session – 0.540sec down – gave him an eventual pole-winning margin of 0.227sec. 

Second went to the Pro-Am Optimum entry of Warren & Brown, but – and we talked about how Sam Neary only needed a fraction more speed to gain a place – Hopkinson must be wondering what he needed to do differently on his fastest lap as he finished third on an aggregated time that was just 0.001sec slower than his teammates. 

Pro-Am cars are in the majority of this season’s GT4 entry list and they rounded out the top five with Ed McDermott – alongside new co-driver Seb Morris – will start the new season on the second row, a tenth-and-a-bit ahead of Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson in the Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 Evo.

A second Mahiki Racing Lotus took sixth, with Stephen Lake and Jack Mitchell themselves a tenth ahead of Jon Currie and Phil Keen in the second of the Team Parker Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4s.

The first race of the 2025 British GT Championship season gets underway at 12.45 UK time, and you’ll be able to watch it live on GT REPORT!