Lamborghini factory driver Sandy Mitchell led a Barwell Motorsport 1-2 finish at the Donington Park decider following a two-hour thriller in changing dry and wet conditions.
It was the first win of the season for the #78 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 crew of Mitchell and Alex Martin, after 72 laps, and their first win since Race 2 at Snetterton last year.
Meanwhile, despite mid-race contact and an added pit stop time penalty, Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss’ consistent campaign in the #42 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was enough to seal the 2025 GT3 Drivers’ title.
They encountered incidents with their main rivals in the #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin and #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren, who were both tied for second in the standings before the race.
Round 9’s shifting dry and wet spells played into Barwell’s hands, who prevailed after locking out the front row in qualifying before their pit stops marked a switch between the #1 and #78 Lamborghinis with a quicker stop by the #78, due to the #1’s 10-second success penalty.
The weather situation led some teams to take a gamble by using wets in the final stages of the race, while others benefited from toughing it out on slicks and maintaining track position when the sun came out and dried the track.
“We’ve had just a couple of rounds this year that haven’t quite gone our way,” said Mitchell. “And it’s been quite tricky overall, but we’ve had a great start to the season here at Donington as well, with a P2 (at the opener) and then a fantastic finish with a 1-2 for the team.
“I think it’s really well deserved. All weekend we’ve been quick but we’ve also kept things simple, made the right calls at the right time, and the tyre choice in that race was perfect.”
“Just managing the tyre life,” Martin picked out the key challenge in his opening stint. It’s a long stint. I know Rob was pushing hard; I could see he was pushing hard to pull that gap out, and just had to manage that.
“I think Rob and I both pulled away from the rest of the field whenever it got greasy and wet. So we were obviously doing a good job, and the engineers and the mechanics had done a great job with the car.”
Barwell’s #1 crew of reigning champion Rob Collard and Hugo Cook brought the other Lamborghini to second position, with Dawson/Jewiss having won by a 29.5-point margin over Cook in the provisional GT3 Drivers’ standings.
2 Seas Motorsport finished third and fourth, with the #18 Mercedes pairing of Kevin Tse and Maximilian Götz coming home ahead of the #42 championship-winning duo. Dawson, as a 2024 GT4 Pro-Am champion, secured his second British GT title again in Mercedes machinery.
Barwell’s Collard retained the race lead at the start and established a significant gap over the other #78 Lamborghini driven by Alex Martin.
Dawson, however, pounced from fourth place on Matt Topham’s #67 Orange Racing by JMH McLaren GT3 Evo and took third.
It was a difficult start for Topham, who fell to seventh as Beechdean’s #97 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo driver charged into fourth position behind Dawson.
2023 champion Darren Leung was on the pace in his #22 Blackthorn Aston Martin, which jumped from ninth on the grid to sixth at the start.
Rain first began to fall after eight minutes of green flag racing, varying in intensity throughout. Blackthorn’s #7 Aston Martin driver Giacomo Petrobelli chased down Dawson during the opening stint for third position.
After a full-course yellow turned safety car period due to Michael Orant’s stricken #31 MHK Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo, the initial rain eased before notably coming back again.
This led to drivers struggling with their slicks amid the greasy conditions, catching out Nick Jones of the #66 Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R and Richard Neary of the #8 Team Abba Racing Mercedes, who both spun onto the slippery grass surface.
With pressure turning up, Petrobelli made his move on the inside line of Dawson at the Old Hairpin.
It resulted in contact between the two cars, causing the #42 Mercedes and #7 Aston Martin to spin on the grass and left facing each other as others raced by on the track in front of them.
Dawson was deemed responsible, with an extra 10 seconds added to the upcoming pit stop, totalling 30 seconds, including his 20 seconds from winning last time at Brands Hatch.
Nevertheless, the two cars continued after their contact, but it was Morgan Tillbrook’s #77 McLaren and Leung’s #22 Aston Martin which blasted through into third and fourth places.
Leung went as high as third place because he outbraked Tillbrook at the Melbourne Hairpin amid lapped GT4 traffic. Dawson put on a charge up the order from P8, finding his way into P5 behind Tilbrook.
Side-by-side, Dawson’s #42 Mercedes was squeezed by Tillbrook’s #77 McLaren on the exit of Coppice, resulting in Tillbrook half-rotating before he went across the wet grass, but impressively out of the wall.
The #42 2 Seas Mercedes incurred significant front-end damage with the three-pointed star and grill off, as well as its front-right dive planes, but still pushed on with no further action to their incident, chasing Leung in third.
Both Barwell Lamborghinis pitted together, as did both Blackthorn Aston Martins – even though they were kept out with the rain returning and distant dark clouds teasing a gamble to stick with slick tyres or switch to wets.
Tillbrook, unfortunately, found himself stuck in a gravel trap, which brought out the second full-course yellow and put the #77 Optimum McLaren out of the championship fight with 46 minutes remaining.
Mitchell led comfortably by a nine-second gap on Cook at the front, with Barwell in control of the race.
GT3 cars were skidding their way around the dampened track surface conditions, seeing Nick Yelloly of the #22 Blackthorn Aston Martin enjoy a tense fight amid the midfield competitors, including Spirit of Race’s #55 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Matt Griffin.
Yelloly brought in a fifth-placed finish on his British GT debut with #22 Blackthorn Aston Martin teammate Leung, followed in sixth position by Beechdean’s #97 Aston Martin duo of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood.
After beating its sole GT3 Silver-Am competitors, Bridger Motorsport (#66 Honda NSX GT3 EVO2), it won the GT3 Silver-Am championship title.
Spirit of Race claimed seventh position with Griffin, and his teammate Duncan Cameron kept busy fighting amid the heart of the GT3 field, finishing ahead of the #67 Orange Racing by JMH McLaren.
Marcus Clutton of the #67 McLaren enjoyed running in third when his wet tyres were quicker over slicks; however, that thrill was short-lived when the conditions dried towards the end.
After an early spin, Richard and his son, Sam Neary, finished in ninth place driving the #8 Team Abba Mercedes.
They were followed closely by the #9 Paddock Motorsport McLaren, piloted by Martin Plowman and Mark Smith, which had received a drive-through penalty for an unsafe pit release that nearly impacted #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin driver Jonny Adam, who took 11th with Petrobelli.
The only retirees were the #66 Team Parker Porsche (Nick Jones and Sven Müller) and the #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren (Morgan Tillbrook and Marvin Kirchhöfer).
Optimum Motorsport Secures Double GT4 Championship Glory
Optimum Motorsport swept both Pro-Am and Silver Cup titles in a gripping finale in the GT4 category.
The #90 McLaren Artura GT4 crew of Marc Warren and Jack Brown secured the GT4 class race victory and the Pro-Am title honours.
Furthermore, Brown became British GT’s first-ever back-to-back champion as Optimum’s #17 McLaren teammates Harry George and Luca Hopkinson won the Silver Cup on 208 points, 15.5 over the #14 Century BMW (Chris Salkeld and Branden Templeton).
The #90 crew were on the back foot at the race start after they started three positions behind their main title rivals, Century Motorsport and their #71 BMW M4 GT4 Evo duo, Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson, who finished fourth at the chequered flag.
“We’ve got the job done,” said Brown. “What a year it’s been, we’ve had the whole way through it by the BMW. There’s definitely been some ups and downs, I’d say it’s amazing.”
“I only started racing five years ago,” added Warren, “and I started racing with Ginettas.
“And then British GT cars were on the same paddock, and I just looked at them, and it just looked so far beyond anything that you could ever dream of. So it really is a dream come true. It’s absolutely incredible.”
Warren and Brown’s victory came down to an intense chase on the #69 Mahiki Racing Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo, which started on pole in the hands of Luke Garlick, incurring an early front-left puncture.
The tyre was changed under the first safety car period for the stricken #31 MKH Aston Martin, so the #69 Ginetta remained on the GT4 class lead lap.
After leading the GT4 field for most of the race, Brown began to chase down Angliss, driven by his desire for championship glory and the need to distance himself from the #71 Century BMW closing in behind.
In the end, Warren/Brown won the GT4 Pro-Am title on 200 points, 16 points ahead of the #71 BMW.
In the battle for third position, the #17 Optimum McLaren of Luca Hopkinson was challenged by Robertson’s #71 BMW during the final run to the end and beat him by 0.026 seconds, just behind Mitchell’s #78 Lamborghini.
They fought door-to-door and nose-to-tail for prolonged periods, making the most of the final hairpins as late braking opportunities.
Hopkinson, who took over from George, held his ground as the two cars fought hard but by fair means.
The #14 Century Motorsport BMW of Salkeld and Templeton finished fifth.
MKH Racing continued their race after being recovered earlier on and finished sixth in the hands of Michael Orant and Owen Hizzy ahead of Jolt Racing’s #37 McLaren (Rupert Williams and John Ingram).
The #88 Mahiki Racing Ginetta was the first of the GT4 retirees with a driveshaft issue as it pulled away from its pit stop.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
