+ Second GT4 victory of the season for championship leaders Simpson and Holland
+ Collard/Cook and Orange/Clutton complete revised GT3 podium
+ Hawkins/Orton maintain GT4 title pressure in second; Lavery/Turner third
+ Snetterton Race 1 Result
Reigning GT4 champions Marc Warren and Jack Brown became the latest drivers to join British GT3’s winners’ circle by converting pole position into victory during the first of Sunday’s two 60-minute sprint races at Snetterton.
Their McLaren withstood race-long pressure from Barwell’s Lamborghini shared by Rob Collard and Hugo Cook to take the chequered flag 1.4s clear, while the 720S of Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton completed the revised top three after Morgan Tillbrook was penalised 30s post-race for an incident with Paddock’s Mark Smith.
Further back, Innovation’s Hadley Simpson got the better of pole-sitter Josh Stanton to set up a second win of the season for himself and Thomas Holland who slightly extended their championship lead in the process. However, nearest rivals Jessica Hawkins and Will Orton (MK Racing) limited the damage by finishing runners up for the fourth time in five races, while fellow title contenders Daniel Lavery and Darren Turner (Grange/FSR) rounded out the top three by taking Pro-Am victory.
Warren and Brown’s overall win was the third for a Silver-Am crew this year – the most-ever in a single British GT campaign – and ended Mercedes-AMG and Lamborghini’s Snetterton stranglehold that stretched back nine races to 2021. Brown also extended his incredible record in Norfolk where he has now won in each of the last five years.
GT3
British GT’s senior class dished up an action-packed opener that featured several eye-catching spins and a post-race penalty that might conversely help Optimum later today.
Out front, however, the race-long leading duo were on their best behaviour. Warren converted his maiden GT3 pole into a narrow advantage over Collard who jumped front row starter Tillbrook on the run to Riches for the first time. The McLaren and Lamborghini then ran as one until the pitstops, which both cars made simultaneously nose-to-tail.
With neither having Compensation Time to serve, the newly installed Brown and Cook emerged in the same order as their co-drivers despite the McLaren appearing to initially struggle to find a gear before pulling away.
The gap at the end of their first tour stood at two seconds – the average of what it would remain throughout the final half-hour. Cook occasionally closed in but was never in position to seriously challenge around a circuit known for its lack of passing opportunities.
Behind, third place on the road went to Barnicoat and Tillbrook before the latter’s earlier clash with Smith resulted in a 30-second post-race penalty. Paddock’s McLaren was on course for its best-ever GT3 result before contact sent it spearing into the barriers approaching Bomb Hole.
Orange/JMH were the chief beneficiaries as Orange and Clutton’s quietly effective British GT campaign continued despite serving seven seconds of Compensation Time for their second place at Spa.
The nature of Race 1 meant Optimum’s 30-second penalty only dropped Tillbrook and Barnicoat one place to fourth. But the loss of three points is somewhat offset by no longer serving Compensation Time in Race 2, which Barnicoat will start from third.
Championship leader Alex Martin spun on lap one before serving maximum Compensation Time in the pits, but somehow battled back along with Barwell co-driver Jarrod Waberski to score decent points for fifth. They will need a similar performance in Race 2 if they’re to fight through from the tail of GT3’s grid.
Beechdean’s Aston Martin lines up on pole for that one after rounding out Race 1’s top six despite Andrew Howard suffering a high speed spin. Cameron Campbell and Josh Buchan’s Rodin Ferrari and the 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG of Kevin Tse and Ben Green finished seventh and eighth, respectively.
GT4
Hadley Simpson and Thomas Holland took a controlled victory in GT4, with the Innovation Racing Ginetta hitting the front early and never looking back.
Simpson started second but soon found himself in the lead after pole-sitter Josh Stanton ran wide at Riches. Simpson’s cause was helped further when Luke Shaw misjudged his braking into Wilson hairpin and hit Revie Lake’s Paddock McLaren out of third.
The net result was Simpson leading from Daniel Lavery’s Grange/FSR Aston Martin, Stanton and Jack Collins in the Century BMW. With Lavery putting up a strong defence against Stanton, Simpson made his escape and had pulled almost seven seconds clear by the time Stanton passed the Vantage just before the pit window opened.
The lead was already strong, but would become insurmountable when the Optimum McLaren’s extra pit stop Compensation Time was factored in. With the lead Ginetta free of such a handicap, Holland took over cleanly from Simpson and stroked the car home.
The longer stop for the #59 McLaren took Optimum out of the fight for the win, and a resulting stop-go penalty for the #42 Ginetta after its lap-one incident also stripped it of any chance. While Jack Mitchell took over from Shaw and rejoined second, the car was soon back into the box to serve the penalty.
That allowed MK Racing’s Aston shared by Jessica Hawkins and Will Orton into second.
Hawkins had kept the car fourth over the first half before a lack of Compensation Time vaulted Orton to second behind the runaway Ginetta. Collins and Branden Templeton were third ahead of Lavery and Darren Turner, with the Grange/FSR Vantage claiming the Pro-Am win despite having to serve its 10 seconds extra for winning at Spa.
Stanton and George Gamble were fifth for Optimum, with the penalised Mitchell and Shaw sixth.
Race 2 begins at 16:00 BST. Watch it live on SRO's GT World YouTube channel.