Andrew Howard will start Sunday’s two-hour British GT Brands Hatch race from pole position in the #007 Beechdean Aston Martin, following a very strong performance from him and co-driver Johnny Adam in Saturday evening’s GT3-class qualifying session.
“The car’s good here and Andrew is driving really well,” said Adam afterwards. “We’re confident about tomorrow but of course we have the 20-second pitstop penalty after Spa, so it should be very close. We’ve been playing catch-up in the championship ever since our DNF, so we’re aiming for some solid points from a top-four finish.”
In the first part of the session, Von Ryan McLaren’s silver-rated driver Ross Wylie was the quickest man on track, going round in 1:26.557 on his second flying lap in the #10 650S.
Howard meanwhile continued to display the strong pace that had seen him top FP1, setting a 1:26.648 on his second flyer, while at the last moment Oman Racing Team’s Ahmad Al-Harthy sneaked in a 1:26.804 to put the #2 Aston Martin provisionally third.
Andrew Jarman (TF Sport Aston Martin), Lee Mowle (888 BMW, above) and Gary Eastwood (FF Corse Ferrari) were fourth, fifth and sixth-quickest respectively in this segment.
Next was the pro driver part of qualifying, and Adam was immediately on the pace here in the Beechdean car to put it on provisional pole. The fastest indivdual lap of the session thus far was then recorded by FP2 pacesetter Alexander Sims, putting the Ecurie Ecosse BMW temporarily third.
A stunning 1:24.817 from Joe Osborne then vaulted the 888 BMW to the top of the screens, but although nobody else would set a quicker indivdual lap this session, another strong effort from Adam (1:24.958) was enought to secure pole for the Beechdean machine when combined with Howard’s earlier effort.
Andrew Watson ensured a top-three starting position for the Von Ryan McLaren (above) with a lap of 1:25.453, pushing championship leaders Sims and Marco Attard down to fourth in the Ecosse BMW.
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