Marcus Clutton set a fastest time of 1:27.287 in the opening British GT free practice session at Donington Park, which ended prematurely after the second of two red flags.
After Storm Amy swept the United Kingdom yesterday, dry but windy conditions prevailed in the first of the weekend track action for British GT’s Donington decider.
The one-hour session was first interrupted by a 24-minute red flag when Mahiki Racing’s #88 Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo of Joe Wheeler spun at the bottom of the Craner Curves into the left-side tyre barrier.
After the car’s collision, with 47 minutes on the clock, the #88 Ginetta sustained significant damage. The marshals rebuilt the tyre wall, and the car did not take any further part in the session.
Later, with 15 minutes remaining, the second red flag was triggered after the #71 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 Evo of Ravi Ramyead ended up in the barriers and gravel trap at Redgate corner.
The #71 BMW sat with its left side against the tyre barrier, though the car took less damage than Wheeler’s in the first incident.
Contact was noted between Ramyead and the #37 Jolt Racing McLaren Artura GT4 of Rupert Williams, who stopped down at Craner Curves?.
Second in the classification was Porsche factory driver Sven Müller of the #66 Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R with his lap time of 1:27.586.
Lamborghini’s Sandy Mitchell finished third in the #78 Barwell Motorsport Huracan GT3 EVO2 (1:27.607) ahead of the championship-leading #42 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Kiern Jewiss (1:27.710).
Callum Macleod claimed fifth in Optimum Motorsport’s #3 McLaren GT3 Evo with a 1:27.821, followed by 2 Seas’ other #18 Mercedes-AMG of Maximilian Götz and his 1:28.035 lap time.
Tom Wood put the #97 Beechdean Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo in seventh (1:28.092) ahead of the #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin of Jonny Adam (1:28.148).
McLaren factory driver Marvin Kirchhöfer took ninth in the #77 Optimum McLaren (1:28.168) as the top-10 was rounded off by #1 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini driver Hugo Cook (1:28.179).
In the GT4 category, former GT3 champion Seb Morris went fastest in the #12 Team Parker Mercedes-AMG GT4 after setting a 1:35.534.
Owen Hizzy took second for the #31 MHK Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo with a 1:35.543 lap time.
Harry George, who won last time out at Brands Hatch with his teammate Luca Hopkinson, took third in the #17 Optimum Motorsport McLaren (1:35.551), followed by reigning GT4 champion Jack Brown in the other #90 Optimum McLaren (1:35.600).
Luke Garlick was fourth-fastest in the GT4 field for the #69 Mahiki Ginetta (1:35.619) as Phil Keen closed out the top-five in the #30 Team Parker Mercedes-AMG (1:35.699).
Pre-qualifying continues the action with another 60-minute session from 12:00 local time.
Images courtesy of JEP/SRO
