Ben Barnicoat went quickest in a bright, sunny free practice to kick off action at Brands Hatch for the final round of the 2026 British GT Championship.
He set his fastest lap time of 1:23.924 at the wheel during the final minutes of the one-hour session in the #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren.
Barnicoat bested Charles Clark’s #44 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 Evo by 0.023 seconds, followed by Simon Orange’s #67 Orange Racing by JMH McLaren GT3 Evo – which held the top spot for most of the one-hour session with his 1:23.948 lap time – another 0.001 seconds behind.
One second covered the entire GT3 field, showcasing how close the field is as drivers scrape every bit of lap time around the fast, undulating tarmac. With no prior paid test day for the Brands Hatch race meeting, it marked the first time drivers took to the track to begin their preparations for qualifying later today and tomorrow’s two-hour race.
Chris Lulham ended up fourth in the #18 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with a 1:24.297 lap time. Aston Martin factory driver Ross Gunn went fifth in the #7 Beechdean Vantage AMR GT3 Evo after setting his lap time of 1:24.480 towards the closing stages of the session, followed next by Callum Macleod’s #3 Optimum McLaren (1:24.483).
The championship-leading #63 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 took seventh place after Hugo Cook completed a time of 1:24.494 ahead of the other #78 Barwell Lamborghini of Jarrod Waberski (1:24.746). Aaron Walker put the #15 2 Seas Mercedes ninth-quickest from a time of 1:24.754 as last year’s GT4 champion Jack Brown rounded out the top 10 in the #90 Optimum McLaren (1:24.879).
In the GT4 category, our most recent winners, Paddock Motorsport, topped their field after Blake Angliss’s 1:31.435 lap time in the #84 McLaren Artura GT4. Jack Mitchell followed in second place in the #42 Toro Verde GT Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo, top of GT4 Pro-Am, with a 1:31.444, as George Gamble claimed third in the #59 Optimum McLaren (1:31.567).
Toro Verde GT’s Tom Bradshaw secured fourth in the #8 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS (1:31.667), and Thomas Holland closed out the top five cars in the GT4 category after having set a 1:31.897 in his #74 Innovation Racing Ginetta.
Pre-qualifying continues the action from 11:45 BST with another one-hour session.
Image courtesy of SRO/JEP
