Barwell Motorsport’s Hugo Cook almost topped both British GT Championship practice sessions, before Kiern Jewiss stormed to the top late in Pre-Qualifying to ensure 2 Seas Motorsport put themselves in pole contention ahead of qualifying for the Silverstone 500. 

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At the first round of the 2026 season, honours were also split in the GT4 category as Mahiki Racing topped Free Practice, before Colin Turkington powered WSR Flexify to first in Pre-Qualifying. 

Free Practice

Despite battling the flu, Barwell’s Hugo Cook got the day’s action underway in fine fashion as he took the top spot with what was his first flying and, despite a brief blip in the middle, ended it there too as the Lamborghini Huracáns proved to be strong around the Silverstone circuit.

In what was another day of sunshine in Northamptonshire, a rare treat at this time of year, the majority of teams were quick to get out and take to the track in cooler conditions than yesterday’s two afternoon test sessions. 

Straight off, Cook was looking rapid in the car he shares with Rob Collard and indeed headed a Barwell one-two for a time as Duncan Cameron got to grips with his switch in Italian machinery – going from Ferrari to Lamborghini for this season. 

But then was a bit of a shuffle at the top as Ben Green, sharing the 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG with Kevin Tse this season, powered his way to the top with a 1min58.032sec. That lasted a matter of moments as Cook improved on his very next lap – his 1min57.908sec proving too much to catch for teams seemingly settling for establishing their race pace rather than setting up for single-lap speed.

Because of that, the times weren’t changing particularly rapidly. Kiern Jewiss powered the reigning champions to third in the 2 Seas AMG he’s sharing with Charles Dawson for a one-off appearance this weekend, whilst Ross Gunn manoeuvred the Beechdean Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo to fourth.

It also didn’t particularly help that there was a 10-minute or so interruption to recover the Rodin Motorsport Ferrari of Cameron Campbell and Joshua Buchan as the former found the gravel in the Maggotts/Becketts section.

Once things got going again, it was primarily the turn for the Pros to give things a go and try and improve their cars position. The main mover in that category was Jarrod Waberski who powered his Barwell Lamborghini up to fifth, 0.009sec slower than Gunn’s Aston.

In a positive sign for the season, times were tight across the board, with the top 10 covered by 0.749sec as two McLarens – those of Optimum Motorsport and Orange Racing with JMH – took eighth and ninth, with Dan Harper and Darren Leung rounding out the 10 fastest runners in their Paradine Competition BMW M4 GT3 Evo.

Notably in GT3, two cars had issues throughout with Steven Lake and Josh Rowledge only managing nine laps after a late start to the session in their Mahiki Racing McLaren 720S GT3. Whilst the third 2 Seas Mercedes of Aaron Walker and Andrew Gilbert spent much of the session in the garage as they battled electrical  gremlins in their AMG.

Compared to that, GT4 was smooth sailing – apart from the Townsend Racing Aston being slapped with a black flag for repeated track limits violations – as Mahiki had something positive to mark from the session as Steven Lake’s son Revie took the top spot in class alongside Blake Angliss in their McLaren Artura.

It was close run at the end, though, as Jack Mitchell – back and as fast as ever – took his Toro Verde GT Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo to second, missing out on top by just 0.029sec. Much like GT3, the whole class is tightly covered at Silverstone this weekend, with just over 1.5sec covering Lake in first with the #97 of GBR Stratton Motorsport’s John Hartshorne and Ronan Pearson who were last.

In the middle, a maelstrom of ever-changing positions. When the chequered flag finally put an end to proceedings, Hadley Simpson ended up third in the Innovation Racing Ginetta – a good start to the team’s British GT debut – a fraction ahead of Ian Duggan and Tom Bradshaw in Toro Verde’s Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS. 

Optimum Motorsport’s Josh Stanton and Luca Hopkinson took fifth, heading a trio of Astons as the Vantages tended to be stuck around the lower reaches of the GT4 times. 

Pre-Qualifying

Lunch-time’s Pre-Qualifying session seemed to be going the same way as the morning’s first running, as Hugo Cook looked set to snatch the fastest time once again, until a late lap from reigning champ Jewiss put 2 Seas on top in the final running before Saturday afternoon’s all important Qualifying session.

Before times even started to get properly clocked on the timing screens – Charles Clark the first to set a time of any competitiveness in his Century Motorsport BMW – we had a 10-minute red flag to recover Steven Lake’s Mahiki Racing McLaren, with what was suspected to be a loose wheel nut as the car was released from the pits. 

When things got going again, it was the Pros who where behind the wheel as they got insurance times locked in early if Qualifying were to get cancelled and the grid needed to be set from times in this session. 

Like the morning, it was Cook who set the pace early, with his 1min58.888sec to power the Huracán to the top. Waberski in the sister car was also a man on the move, as he leaped up to third to sandwich Mark Plowman’s Paddock Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3. 

As they got settled in, the times improved and Waberski moved up to second, with Dan Harper up to third in the Paradine machine. But then, change continued to come as the final minutes of the session saw a flurry of activity as Andrew Gilbert moved up to second in the #15 2 Seas machine after the team seemingly got on top of the electrical issues that impacted their running in Free Practice. 

Then, right as the flag came out, Jewiss put in a session best of 1min58.851sec to vault up to the top and ensure Barwell doesn’t enter Qualifying as the uncontested favourite for pole. 

Fifth once again went to Beechdean as Gunn and Andrew Howard rekindle an old partnership that has lost none of the speed it displayed the last time the pair shared an Aston Martin, with Ben Barnicoat sixth in the Optimum Motorsport McLaren he’s sharing with Morgan Tillbrook for the season. 

Harper couldn’t improve on his early pace as he took seventh alongside Darren Leung, with reigning GT4 champions Jack Brown and Marc Warren taking eighth in their Optimum machine. 

GT4 went the way of the WSR Flexifly BMW M4 GT4 Evo of Colin Turkington and Ernie Graham as the former, the 4-time BTCC champion, set a storming lap early doors and then let Graham, himself a historic rally champion, do the rest of the running as he gets settled into life in GT racing. 

Behind, the GT3s might be having dramas but the Artura is going right as rain with Lake and Angliss taking second for Mahiki as they squeezed ahead of Jack Mitchell and Luke Shaw. The Toro Verde duo are in a strong place in their Ginetta, so it’ll be interesting to see how they go in Qualifying. 

Fourth went to Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins in their MK Racing Aston Martin as once again all the Vantages were stuck together in the times – GBR Stratton Motorsport too fifth, whilst Grange Racing with FSR’s Darren Turner and Daniel Lavery were sixth. 

Qualifying gets underway at 15.45 local time (16.45 in Europe).