Optimum Motorsport’s Marvin Kirchhöfer was the fastest driver in the first free practice session of the British GT Championship’s opening weekend at Donington Park today.
Optimum and reigning GT3 Teams’ champion Barwell Motorsport’s cars all showed pace, claiming two spaces each in the top four.
The 60-minute session took place in bright, clear, dry conditions, although the ambient temperature stood at a brisk 11.6 degrees Celsius.
There were two incidents, one involving Jonny Adam’s #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and Barwell Motorsport’s #1 Lamborghini driver, Hugo Cook.
They made contact roughly halfway through the session, though, thankfully, the damage to the cars was minor.
Following a brief full-course-yellow period, there was further contact, this time between a GT3 and GT4 car – Mike Price in the #3 Optimum Motorsport McLaren and John Ingram’s #37 Jolt Racing McLaren Artura GT4.
Again, race control noted the contact with no significant consequences.
By the time of the chequered flag, Kirchhöfer had set a lap time of 1:25.107 ahead of Sandy Mitchell’s 1:25.157 in the #78 Barwell Lamborghini.
Callum Macleod set a 1:25.199 towards the end of the session to go third in the #3 Optimum Motorsport McLaren as Cook took fourth in the #1 Lamborghini (1:25.448).
Team Parker Racing finished in fifth position, owing to Sven Muller’s time of 1:25.452 in the #66 Porsche 911 GT3.R.
Adam put the #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin in sixth place after his 1:25.508. The #67 Orange Racing by JMH McLaren of Marcus Clutton and his 1:25.546 lap time.
A trio of Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos rounded out the top-10 order in GT3.
Kiern Jewiss was seventh for 2 Seas Motorsport in the #42 after setting a 1:25.566, closely followed by Team Abba’s Sam Neary (1:25.585) and the sister #18 2 Seas AMG of Maximilian Götz.
In the GT4 field, 2017 champion Seb Morris put Team Parker’s #12 Mercedes-AMG GT4 on top with a 1:32.423.
Two of Mahiki’s three Lotus Emiras finished in second and third, with #88 driver Jack Mitchell ahead of #84 driver Josh Miller.
Team Parker’s other #30 Mercedes-AMG took fourth overall in GT4 with credit to Phil Keen as reigning champion Jack Brown closed out the top-five in the #90 Optimum Motorsport McLaren.
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Image courtesy of SRO/JEP
