GT3 Am
All cars were on track within two minutes of the start of the session, the last car out being the freshly repaired #69 Barwell Lamborghini of Sam de Haan.
A 1:36.027 for Mark Farmer in the #11 Aston Martin was the opening reference, with Parfitt’s #1 Bentley and Johnston’s #17 Aston Martin just a tenth down. Flick Haigh’s first flier was a 1:35.666, moving her to the top, where she would stay.
Parfitt was enjoying the dry conditions with a 1:34.899, but Haigh trumped it again next time round with a 1:34.769. Johnston and Howard sat in third and fourth with two minutes to go, Davidson rounding out the top five.
Ian Loggie put his #7 Bentley third with a 1:35.342 on his fourth lap, but then bettered it to a 1:35.096 to secure it on his fifth with half the grid already pitted. A little over two seconds covered the GT3 Am field.
GT3 Pro
Keen’s 1:32.869 was the best of the openers, with Adam, Sorensen, Thiim and Buurman covering the next half second back. The three Aston Martins were split by 0.07s, while Turner and Martin were seventh and ninth respectively.
The session was very static after those opening gambits, with only Buurman bettering his lap, but not his grid place, on his fourth.
Bell’s three laps couldn’t muster better than a 1:36.062, so he’ll be last in GT3 behind the Nissan GTR.
GT4 Am
Opening efforts for #62’s Moore (1:43.779) and #42’s Tuck (1:43.988) were the initial best laps. But with 22 cars on track, this session was always going to be far from static and soon Finlay Hutchinson put the #10 Equipe Verschuur McLaren on pole with a not-to-be-beaten 1:42.694.
Another McLaren was provisionally second, with #4’s O’Brien 1:43.320 and HHC’s #55 Ginetta hanging in there with Pointon’s 1:43.337. Ben Tuck continued the impressive BMW debut with a 1:43.467 and Collard’s sister car was initially sixth with a 1:43.498.
A yellow flag was deployed as one of the Nissans came to a halt, but there was a little flurry at the chequered flag as Pointon bagged a 1:42.919 to bag second on the grid and a 1:43.395 for Collard moved him to fourth, overtaking Tuck despite an improvement to his time, too, at 1:43.417.
GT4 Pro
As in GT3 Pro, the session was rather static at the top, with quick times coming early. The first under 1:43 were #10 (McKay, McLaren) and #66 (Malvern, Mercedes).
And so it remained, but Burns (#50 Ginetta), Mitchell (#43 BMW) and Matthieson (#55 Ginetta) soon joined them, so HHC had both cars at the sharp end of the grid. In the #53 Nissan, Plowman will start in an impressive sixth place. The Jaguars were 15th (#44) and 17th (#22); the Toyotas 18th and 20th.
UPDATE: Although Equipe Verschuur set the fastest times in both GT4 segments, the #10 car will start from the back on Monday after a mistake saw Finlay Hutchison and Daniel McKay take part in the wrong qualifying sessions. Callum Pointon and Scott Malvern therefore start from pole in races one and two, respectively.
