The 37 runners for the season-ending Silverstone 500 were greeted by bright morning skies but frigid conditions for a pair of free practice sessions.
FP1
The first was red-flagged with under 10 minutes to go after an on-track clash between the #21 Balfe Motorsport McLaren of Euan Hankey and the #30 Steller Motorsport Audi R8 LMS of Richard Wiliams left both cars with damage, the Audi suffering a broken wheel, sill and bodywork damage – the car fixed in time for the second session.
At the top time of the times for session 1 was Yelmer Buurman in the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo – a 1:58.174 topping the efforts of Jonny Adam and Charlie Eastwood in the #1 Garage 59 and #7 Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martins.
GTC was topped by the #24 Simon Green Motorsport Ferrari 488 Challenge of Ross Wylie in a 2:03.614.
GT4’s front runner in FP1 was the #97 TF Sport Aston Martin, Jamie Caroline with a 2:10.532, edging out Sam Smelt in the #23 Speedworks Toyota GR Supra with Scott Malvern in the #66 Team Parker Racing AMG GT4 third fastest.
FP2
The fastest GTC car in the first session sat out FP2 whilst Simon Green Motorsport fixed a holed radiator.
The session was topped midway by Jonny Adam in the #1 Garage 59 Aston Martin, but the multiple champion was edged out later in the session by Charlie Eastwood in the #7 Beechdean car (1:58.532), Aston Martin holding a 1-2 to the end ahead of Rob Bell’s best effort in the #19 Balfe Motorsport Mclaren 720S GT3.
The #13 Scott Sport Ferrari in the hands of Phil Quaife topped GTC with a lap in 2:03.856.
GT4 saw the Speedworks Toyota top the times with a 2:11.099 for Sam Smelt just ahead of the pair of TF Sport Aston Martins, Jamie Caroline and Connor O’Brien separated by just 5 thousandths of a second in the #97 and #95.
