+ Martin and Mitchell beat Collard and Cook to GT3 victory
+ Optimum’s title-winning McLaren victorious in GT4
+ Howard, Wood, Hopkinson and George seal class titles; 2 Seas and Optimum win teams’
+ Provisional Result: #DoningtonDecider
Charles Dawson, Kiern Jewiss, Marc Warren and Jack Brown survived a turbulent #DoningtonDecider to claim the 2025 British GT3 and GT4 championships.
Barwell’s Lamborghinis scored a dominant one-two at the head of the field to effectively seal the GT3 drivers’ crown for 2 Seas’ leading duo whose three rivals were never in contention to take the victory they required.
Alex Martin and Sandy Mitchell scored their first win of the season by a commanding 31 seconds from team-mates Rob Collard and Hugo Cook, but that wasn’t enough to overturn 2 Seas’ significant advantage in the teams’ championship. Indeed, Kevin Tse and Maximilian Götz completed the overall podium to also finish third in the drivers’ standings behind Cook who rose from fifth to second in the final reckoning.
GT4 was more straightforward to some degree, but Brown only made absolutely sure of the title late on when he relieved Mahiki’s Ginetta shared by Luke Garlick and Blake Angliss of the lead. At that stage he and Warren’s main championship rivals, Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson, were just one place behind and closing in fast. Had they overtaken, the advantage would have swung in Century’s favour.
Instead, third turned to fourth in the closing stages when Robertson and Luca Hopkinson engaged in a thrilling fight for the final podium place. It ultimately went the way of Optimum’s McLaren that also featured Harry George by just 0.026s.
Optimum’s one-three helped it to retain GT4’s teams’ crown, while Hopkinson and George completed the squad’s clean sweep by winning the Silver class title.
Beechdean’s Andrew Howard and Tom Wood also wrapped up the GT3 Silver-Am championship by finishing first in class and sixth overall.
GT3: DAWSON AND JEWISS DO ENOUGH
A significant 28.5-point lead – the most at this stage of any GT3 season – made Dawson and Jewiss heavy favourites to win the title. And, ultimately, their lead was never really in jeopardy despite the weather and a penalty briefly threatening to cause the greatest upset in championship history.
Their cause was undoubtedly helped by Barwell whose Lamborghinis were never troubled out front after Collard maintained his initial advantage over Martin at the start. #78 slipped back over the first half of the stint but was tucked up behind again by the time both cars pitted together and duly moved ahead thanks to #1’s Compensation Time.
Mitchell, who took over from Martin, set fastest lap en route to an untroubled first victory of the season from Cook who was similarly serene in second.
The same could not be said for the majority of their GT3 rivals, and especially the four cars capable of winning the title.
Intermittent rain showers made for tricky conditions on slick tyres before the stops when Dawson – who moved up to third early on – had two moments that could have ended in disaster. The first involved Giacomo Petrobelli at the Old Hairpin where side-by-side contact and both cars spinning was ruled a racing incident, before Dawson turned Morgan Tillbrook around at Coppice. The latter earned his 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG an additional 10-second penalty during its pitstop on top of the maximum Compensation Time accrued for winning at Brands Hatch.
Tillbrook retired before the driver changes by spinning into the McLeans gravel trap, while Petrobelli’s earlier delay and Tse’s trip through the gravel trap left both remaining championship challengers needing a miracle. None was forthcoming.
Instead, Jonny Adam was running only fifth when Blackthorn elected to switch from slicks to wets in the worst of the conditions. But when the rain eased and track dried the Aston Martin was forced to stop again, leaving it only 11th at the flag.
The same decisions by Orange/JMH and Paddock, whose McLarens were third and fourth when they pitted, left Jewiss a miraculous fourth overall – more than enough for him and Dawson to win the crown.
Blackthorn’s guest entry shared by Darren Leung and Nick Yelloly battled to fifth, while Beechdean’s Howard and Wood secured the Silver-Am crown with a trouble-free run to sixth overall.
The Spirit of Race Ferrari and Orange/JMH’s McLaren – which ran third after the stops but dropped back on its wet tyres – rounded out the top eight.
GT4: OPTIMUM’S HISTORY MAKER GOES BACK-TO-BACK
Warren and Brown secured the 2025 GT4 title after a nail-biting winner-takes-all showdown in which the latter set a new wins record and became the class’ first two-time champion.
Optimum’s #90 McLaren began the race second in the standings but the destination of the title swung back and forth between its dirvers and erstwhile leaders Ramyead, Robertson and Century’s #71 BMW.
The M4 got the early advantage thanks to qualifying three places clear of the Artura, but the two cars spent the majority of the race locked together before the additional Compensation Time Ramyead and Robertson served for finishing second at Brands Hatch proved decisive.
The race also featured a back-to-front story for the #69 Mahiki Racing Ginetta shared by Luke Garlick and Blake Angliss’ whose breakthrough win was denied by Brown in the late stages.
Garlick bolted clear from pole, establishing a four-second lead by the time George found a way past Ramyead to make it a Silver one-two. George then found himself out front when Garlick was forced to pit with a puncture after clouting a displaced tyre stack. While that was a dose of bad luck, the fact the car completed its repairs while the race was under Safety Car conditions helped Garlick stay on the lead lap, which would be key to the car’s fightback.
Garlick rejoined the tail of the train and began picking his way back through, eventually rising back to second as Ramyead and Warren lost time duelling. The championship protagonists played out a tight fight for third by the time the pit window opened.
George built a gap of more than 11 seconds over Garlick, but with the #17 McLaren needing to serve maximum Compensation Time at its stop, the advantage would not be enough to keep it out front once Hopkinson took over.
With the Pro-Am crews enjoying shorter mandatory stops, Ramyead handed to Robertson and was followed into the pits by Warren, who relayed Brown. And with no additional time to serve, he vaulted ahead and rejoined in the outright race lead.
Things looked done and dusted until the heaviest shower of the race hit with 40 minutes to run. The stiff carbon-chassied McLaren struggled on its slicks, allowing Angliss to home in and eventually restore the Ginetta’s lead. That also piled the pressure on Optimum, with Robertson taking chunks of time out of Brown. However, once the rain abated and the track dried, the grip returned for Brown, allowing him to pull a fine move on Angliss into the Melbourne Loop and take control of both the race and championship.
He crossed the line to huge celebration from Optimum’s garage, cementing his status as the series’ first double champion and a 13-time GT4 winner – one more than Nigel Moore achieved.
Angliss and Garlick took second for Mahiki, while Hopkinson battled past Robertson to secure the final podium spot for himself and George. Robertson and Ramyead were fourth, ahead of new Endurance Cup champions Ed McDermott and Seb Morris who claimed a third class win of the season aboard their Team Parker Racing Mercedes-AMG.
Mahiki might have missed out on a first GT4 victory but it was awarded British GT’s Team of the Weekend Award for repairing the #88 Ginetta that crashed heavily in Free Practice in time for Sunday’s race.