Alvaro Parente was the class of an admittedly thin International GT Open field in qualifying for the first of the weekend’s two races at Silverstone on Saturday morning.
The Portuguese McLaren works driver had set the early pace, initially taking his #2 Teo Martin Motorsport 650S around the international layout in 1:59.541.
Villorba Corse Ferrari man Alessandro Balzan then challenged with a 1:59.337, but Parente was not to be beaten and went out again to confirm pole with a blindingly quick 1:58.046, leaving Balzan second.
The only other driver to break the one-minute barrier was Spaniard Alvaro Barba in the #16 AERT Lamborghini, clocking a 1:59.690 to line up third for Saturday afternoon’s race.
Fourth to eighth positions were held by Ferraris, starting with Raffaele Giammaria’s #90 AF machine, then Mattias Russo in the #15 Baporo car, Shaun Balfe in the #22 Balfe entry and to more AF Corse-run cars: Pasin Lathouras in the #51 and Mads Rasmussen in the #53.
A total of just 12 cars has turned up at Silverstone for the third round of the championship – compared to 15 at the same meeting last year and 27 in 2013. It’s understood that several planned full-season entries (including the Italian Solaris Motorsport Corvette and least one Kessel Racing Ferrari) didn’t materialise, while other series regulars such as the Novadriver Audi team have been unable to secure the budget for a full season.
Duncan Cameron, who was due to share an AF Corse Ferrari with Matt Griffin here this weekend, has elected to instead focus on preparations for Le Mans, where the duo will be joined by Alex Mortimer. The planned appearance of the Audi R8 of Blancpian regular Team Parker Racing also didn’t happen, while the Kox Racing entry of Peter Kox/Nico Pronck fell victim to Kox’s call-up to race for Reiter Engineering at the Zolder Blancpain Sprint round.
The timing of the GT Open event in relation to Silverstone’s other GT3 races (with the Blancpain Endurance Series and British GT taking place on the two previous weekends) has also worked against the GT Open organisers, while the GT Cup race here next weekend is also believed to have reduced the chances of any British teams making a one-off appearance.
More cars are expected to join the GT Open field for the next round at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on 4-5 July – just a week before the European Le Mans Series visits the same track.
In the end, the only ‘wildcards’ that have appeared at Silverstone are two Radical RXCs – one being raced solo by Spanish GT regular Rafael Unzurrunazga under the Blue Jumeirah Team banner and the other a works effort crewed in this session by James Abbott (son of Radical boss Phil Abbott). The latter managed to outqualify two GT3 cars, setting a 2:04 to go ninth, while Unzurrunzaga rounded out the field in 12th.
There’s also a few names of interest in the support classes: GT regular Johnny Cocker is in a SEAT Leon Supercup car and Sir Chris Hoy is on the entry for two Radical races, the Nissan-backed Olympian continuing to accrue track time in high-downforce machinery as he ramps up to his planned 2016 Le Mans appearance.
Stephen Errity
Images: Adam Pigott
