Barwell Motorsport’s Shaun Balfe and 2 Seas Motorsport’s Marvin Kirchhoefer set the fastest times in British GT Qualifying at Snetterton this afternoon to secure pole position for the pair of sprint races tomorrow.
Q1 was impacted by a grid penalty handed to James Cottingham for a third Behavioural Warning Point this season after making contact with a GT4 car during practice. Cottingham set the session’s fastest time, but he dropped to sixth on the grid for Race 1 following the penalty.
This meant that Balfe’s best lap in the #78 Barwell Lamborghini Huracan would be good enough for pole. Initially, Balfe’s best time was a 1:47.3, but that was scrubbed for a track limits violation. His response was a 1:47.498, a tenth faster than Mark Radcliffe, who will start alongside Balfe on the front row in his #27 Optimum McLaren 720S GT3.
The top six remained ever-changing throughout the 10 minutes of the shootout. Century’s Darren Leung and GT3 debutant Matt Topham (Enduro Motorsport) both spent time in second place before winding up fourth and fifth in the session and third and fourth on the corrected result.
Kevin Tse (Sky Tempesta Racing) set the fastest Silver-Am time to head up row three alongside Cottingham.
However, the top positions were also lacking some of the usual suspects, chief among whom was Ian Loggie who had no answer for his 2 Seas team-mate up front. The reigning champion and two-time Snetterton winner finished 11th, one place ahead of fellow title contender Andrew Howard (Beechdean AMR).
Then in Q2, Kirchhoefer set the pace in the #88 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3, reeling off an early 1:44.793 to put him on pole position for the second race.
It was a tight session for the GT3 drivers, with the top six separated by five and a half tenths.
Joining the Garage 59 McLaren on the front row will be the Beechdean Aston Martin Vantage AMR after Ross Gun set a 1:44.839. Jules Gounon put the #1 2 Seas Mercedes third, making it three GT3 manufacturers in the top three, after a frantic finale the to session which saw a flurry quick times posted on the final flying laps for multiple drivers.
Raffaele Marciello put Ram Racing’s #15 Mercedes fourth, while Dan Harper secured a top five grid spot for Century Motorsport in the #91 M4 GT3.
Harper’s time was just 0.038s clear of Orange Racing by JMH’s McLaren driven by Michael O’Brien.
Cottingham’s co-driver and fellow championship leader Jonny Adam heads up row four from Sandy Mitchell whose Barwell team-mate Will Tregurtha sealed Silver-Am honours in 11th.
GT4 qualifying at Snetterton produced two thrilling duels between McLaren and Ginetta machinery as each brand secured a top time against the other across the two sessions.
The sole constant across the two showdowns was Optimum Motorsport’s championship-leading McLaren Artura of Jack Brown and Charles Clark, with both drivers figuring at the sharp end of the times. However, Brown would lose out on Race 1 pole to an inspired 1:55.040 lap by Raceway Motorsport’s Stuart Middleton in first qualifying, before Clark found enough on his very last run, setting a 1:54.603 to deny Toro Verde’s Mike Simpson in Q2.
The opening session started as a close-run affair, with Harry George leading the times initially for Enduro Motorsport, before Aston Millar (DTO McLaren) and Zac Meakin (Team Parker Porsche) each enjoyed a turn at the top as the trio traded fractions of a second.
But then came Middleton with a mighty effort that put the #56 Ginetta a whopping 0.6s clear. A later effort from Brown managed to trim the gap to 0.480s, but that was as close as anybody got to Middleton’s benchmark.
Millar pipped R Racing’s Josh Miller by a single thousandth of a second to snatch third, Meakin was fifth, and Michael Crees took sixth overall and GT4 Pro-Am honours in Raceway’s other G56.
Ginetta looked set for double poles for a large segment of second qualifying as the returning Mike Simpson rocketed the #86 Toro Verde Ginetta to the top of the times on his first British GT appearance since 2021.
Clark would, however, have the final say.
His first flying effort established a 0.4s cushion before Simpson leapfrogged him by 0.3s. That’s a comfortable gap in GT4 terms, but Clark dug deep and found even more time on his last effort to eventually beat Simpson by 0.195s.
The R Racing Aston Martin again showed well in the hands of Seb Hopkins and will start Race 2 from third, ahead of Josh Rowledge in the DTO Artura. Joe Wheeler put the second Toro Verde Ginetta fifth overall, with Darren Burke’s Enduro Artura rounding out the top six.
But it was a difficult qualifying for championship challengers, Ian Gough and Tom Wrigley, who will start the two races from ninth and 12th, respectively.
Race 1 tomorrow is set to start at 11:25 local time.
- QUALIFYING 1 GT3 TIMES >>>
- QUALIFYING 2 GT3 TIMES >>>
- QUALIFYING 3 GT4 TIMES >>>
- QUALIFYING 4 GT4 TIMES >>>
Images courtesy of British GT
