+ Century’s BMW beats Barwell’s Lamborghinis to GT3 top spot
+ Simpson and Holland lead Ginetta’s GT4 front row lock out
+ Qualifying Results: GT3 | GT4
Century’s Jonathon Beeson and Charles Clark claimed their maiden British GT Championship pole positions at Donington Park where Hadley Simpson and Thomas Holland (Innovation Racing) will head up an all Ginetta GT4 front row tomorrow.
The BMW that topped Free Practice didn’t pace either of GT3’s qualifying sessions but was consistently quick enough to beat Barwell’s Lamborghini shared by Rob Collard and Hugo Cook to top spot by 0.066s in the combined times, while series debutant Chris Lulham (2 Seas) denied Clark the fastest individual lap by posting a1m25.528s on his final tour.
Three of the top five, including the pole-winning car, comprise Silver-Am driver combinations, while GT3’s two leading championship protagonists – Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski, and Morgan Tillbrook and Ben Barnicoat – share row two.
GT4 went the way of championship challengers Simpson and Holland despite Jack Mitchell’s fastest Q2 time that elevated the Toro Verde Ginetta he shares with Luke Shaw from fourth to second. Revie Lake and Blake Angliss took Paddock’s McLaren to third.
GT3: BM FOR THE W?
Century’s M4 GT3 last won at Donington in 2022 and put itself in prime position to do so again thanks to Beeson and Clark who were on the pace from Saturday’s opening session.
However, the star of Q1 was undoubtedly Marc Warren who topped a GT3 qualifying session for the second event in succession. His Optimum Mclaren set fastest time on three occasions before establishing a 0.1s advantage over a chasing pack headed by Collard, who improved on his final lap.
Beeson, meanwhile, ended up third after twice leading the way, and was crucially just 0.134s shy of Warren’s time.
Reigning champion Charles Dawson set the fourth fastest time for 2 Seas, Alex Martin finished fifth, and Morgan Tillbrook and Kevin Tse completed an initial top seven split by as many tenths.
That gave their respective pros an excellent opportunity to make significant gains, but also potentially drop down the order.
Ben Barnicoat has been rapid all year and set the initial pace before Clark hit the front individually and overall with four of Q2’s 10 minutes remaining. His primary challengers were Optimum’s McLaren and Lulham who were on course to end the session separated by just 0.007s before 2 Seas’ Mercedes-AMG posted the weekend’s fastest time on its final tour.
But that personal achievement had no impact on the combined times where Century’s BMW remained 0.066s clear of Barwell’s #63 Lamborghini, which finished Q2 fourth in Cook’s hands.
Row two is shared by this year’s leading championship contenders Martin/Waberski and Tillbrook/Barnicoat who have the maximum 20 seconds of Compensation Time to contend with on Sunday, while Warren and Jack Brown slipped to fifth in the final reckoning.
Lulham’s lap moved 2 Seas’ #18 Mercedes-AMG up a place to sixth at the expense of team-mates Dawson and Aaron Walker, and eighth went the way Orange/JMH’s Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton.
GT4 to follow.
