Blackthorn’s Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam dominated the 180-minute fifth British GT round in their #7 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo, at a hot and humid Spa-Francorchamps as track surface temperatures hit 49 degrees Celsius.
The team claimed their maiden race win from pole position, with four-time champion Adam taking his 20th British GT Championship race win, elevating themselves to championship contention for the first time this season.
2 Seas Motorsport’s #42 Mercedes-AMG duo of Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss retained their championship lead on 89 points, but the #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin drivers now sit in second place on 87 points.
Optimum Motorsport’s #77 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo duo of Morgan Tillbrook and Marvin Kirchhöfer converted their second-place qualifying performance into a P2 race result and complete the weekend just a point behind on 86 points.
Kirchhöfer charged through late on, passing both the #1 (Rob Collard/Hugo Cook) and the #78 Barwell Lamborghini entries (Alex Martin/Patrick Kujula) to grab second. The Huracan pairs eventually settled for third and fourth.
The #97 Beechdean Aston Martin (Andy Howard/Tom Wood) rounded out the top-five finishers, although first in the GT3 Silver-Am sub-class against the #86 Bridger Honda NSX GT3 EVO2 (Jay Bridger/Jonny Ip).
Race
By the end of the opening lap, Petrobelli’s lead gap already sat at 2.812 seconds over Tillbrook.
Petrobelli’s lead expanded to over 1 minute until a safety car (SC) period – caused by a stranded #14 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 Evo of Brandon Templeton – reset most of Giacomo’s good work but the #7 remained unchallenged when Adam continued their charge in the lead.
Simon Orange, in the #67 Orange Racing by JMH McLaren, challenged Tillbrook at the race start before he overtook during a side-by-side duel at Pif-Paf.
Orange’s comfortable second place was compromised after he lost the rear of his McLaren at the exit of Blanchimont with two hours remaining and suffered a dramatic rear-left hit into the concrete wall.
Despite this setback, the #67 McLaren returned to the race, albeit eight laps down on the leading #7 Aston Martin.
With Orange out of contention, third-placed Tillbrook (#77 McLaren) now came under pressure from reigning champion Rob Collard in the #1 Lamborghini, after having wrestled past the #18 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Kevin Tse.
Collard took advantage of Tse’s challenges against the effects of dirty air, also resulting in Tse’s teammate, Charles Dawson, making it past in the 2 Seas’ other #42 Mercedes-AMG.
The #77 Optimum McLaren driver withheld pressure from the #1 Lamborghini behind until Collard made an opportunistic overtake.
Traffic then played a decisive role, as Josh Miller’s lapped #84 Mahiki Racing Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo held up Tillbrook at Stavelot, which resulted in Tillbrook losing momentum against the fighting pair behind him.
Tillbrook, Collard and Dawson raced together as a group towards Blanchimont, though Tillbrook ultimately fell from third to fifth position as a result of being off the racing line and having marginally put his #77 McLaren on the grass.
Dawson returned to the fight with Tillbrook behind him, though Dawson received a drive-through for not having slowed down enough when the FCY called.
The #78 Barwell Lamborghini driver, Alex Martin, engaged in a battle for the virtual second and third positions against the #3 Optimum McLaren of Matt Topham – with cars ahead one pit stop cycle behind.
Martin moved on the inside line of Topham at the beginning of the Les Combes sequence, at the end of the Kemmel Straight.
In doing so, however, he mounted the curb and made door-to-door contact with the #3 McLaren, and later incurred an additional 10 seconds to his next pit stop for incident responsibility.
Optimum’s #3 McLaren suffered a right-rear bent track rod, which forced them into the garage for a repair job before returning to the race.
The team’s other #77 McLaren turned class-leading pace in the hands of Kirchhöfer during the final sprint to the finish, utilising his form to pressure Kujula’s #78 Lamborghini.
The McLaren factory driver stayed close behind Kujula’s Lamborghini, a car which looked more confident in the braking zones. In doing so, both drivers closed down on Cook’s #1 Lamborghini ahead in second position.
With time running out, Kirchhöfer made his move on the outside line of Kujala.
The Finnish driver had a marginally slower exit at Pouhon, and the pair banged doors into Campus before Kirchhöfer made the move stick.
Kirchhöfer eventually caught Cook and also went side-by-side with the #1 Lamborghini during a tense moment at Eau Rouge, prompting Cook to back out with 25 minutes remaining.
The #9 McLaren of Mark Smith in front of Cook owed another pit stop, so he was not in the fight for the win, thus halting Cook’s intentions to chase and return the overtake on Kirchhöfer.
The #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren claimed second place through a hard-fought final stint by Kirchhöfer, whilst Barwell took a strong team finish in third and fourth positions, despite drive-through penalties for track limits.
A difficult sixth-placed race outing for the #42 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG pairing of Dawson and Jewiss resulted in their championship lead being eaten away.
Spirit of Race’s #55 Ferrari 296 GT3 drivers Matt Griffin and Duncan Cameron finished in seventh as Smith brought home eighth in the #9 Paddock McLaren with his teammate Martin Plowman.
Even though Bridger lost the GT3 Silver-Am win to Beechdean, Bridger and teammate Jonny Ip scored ninth place after they started 13th on the grid, ahead of the recovering #3 Optimum McLaren of Topham and Callum Macleod.
Team Abba Racing’s Richard Neary was the sole GT3 class retirement after he went off on the exit of Blanchimont on the sixth lap, unsighted by the cloud of dust Smith’s #9 Paddock Motorsport McLaren gathered from a trip through the gravel trap.
Late long pit stop for debuting Mahiki Ginetta sees Century grab GT4 win
In the GT4 category, the #71 Century Motorsport BMW M4 duo of Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson won after 66 laps of racing at Spa, despite the #84 Mahiki Racing Ginetta having dominated the majority of the race.
Crucially, by not opting to pit during the caution period, the #84 pairing lost out on a potential first victory this season in their first race in new Ginetta machinery.
In the final 25 minutes, however, as a Silver-Am Cup entrant, the #84 took a lengthy final pit stop totalling 172 seconds, factoring in their two mandatory compensation times – 10 and 12 seconds – as per GT4 Silver-Am regulations.
The #71 BMW meanwhile redeemed themselves after their incident at Oulton Park last time out when Ramyead hit the Armco barrier, spoiling the #71 BMW’s efforts to score points in either of the Easter weekend sprint races.
There were further dramas though for Ramyead who incurred two drive-through penalties in the opening hour for track limits violations and so the BMW made a total of five pit stops in the race, but the #84 Ginetta’s lengthy pit stop rejuvenated the #71 BMW’s winning chances.
Team Parker Racing’s #12 Mercedes-AMG GT4 drivers Seb Morris and Ed McDermott took second position, taking a second Endurance Cup podium appearance after the opening round at Donington Park.
The other Team Parker Mercedes-AMG, the #30, of Phil Keen and Jon Currie, took third place.
Optimum Motorsport rounded out the top five with the #17 McLaren of Harry George and Luca Hopkinson, followed by the #90 McLaren pairing of Marc Warren and reigning champion Jack Brown, who fought with each other throughout the race.
As with Barwell’s team-car battle in GT3, Optimum secured a strong finish for both cars, even though their gaps closed towards the end.
All three Mahiki Ginettas reached the checkered flag, with the #14 Century BMW being the only GT4 class retirement; however, this after their team received a black flag for returning to the race after they were recovered to the pit lane with external assistance.
Images courtesy of JEP/SRO
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