+ RESULT: Pre-Qualifying, Oulton Park
Team RJN topped the times in Pre-Qualifying at Oulton Park, with Alex Buncombe leaving it late to deny Team Abba Racing’s Sam Neary the final honours ahead of qualifying.
Similarly, Jamie Day struck late on to put the Forsetti Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo he shares with Mikey Porter top of the GT4 pack.
When the lights went green, most teams were eager to make up for the limited running in free practice by heading out early, and it was Garage 59’s Marcus Clutton who hit the ground running first, putting the McLaren he shares with Morgan Tillbrook out front in the opening laps. Things were interrupted when Adam Smalley fell foul of a slide at Druids while chasing down Clutton’s benchmark and whacked the barriers, bringing out the red flags.
The circuit went back to green with 35 minutes remaining, and Clutton still out front. It took until the final 10 minutes to break the deadlock, with Sam Neary finally slipping past Clutton, but his effort would too be usurped by a late flier from Buncombe with just a few minutes remaining. Any hopes of further improvements were dashed when the red flags flew for a second time with just two minutes remaining to recover Gordie Mutch’s Mahiki Lotus from the exit of Brittens.
That left Buncombe on top, ahead of the Nearys and Clutton and Tillbrook. Mike Price and Callum Macleod were fourth fastest in the Greystone GT Mercedes-AMG, ahead of free practice dominator Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin’s Barwell Lamborghini. Despite the off, Smalley’s early best was good enough to leave the dented McLaren sixth overall.
Day and Porter put Forsetti on top of the GT4 pack before qualifying by going fastest during a late exchange with the RACE LAB McLaren Artura of Sai Sanjay and Callum Davies.
Having narrowly missed top spot during practice, Charlie Robertson tried his best to put Century’s BMW M4 out front early on, his initial best lap standing as the benchmark well into the second half of the session. Jordan Albert was the first to break through, putting the Steller Motorsport Audi he shares with Tim Docker top, only to be beaten soon after by Zac Meakin in the Optimum McLaren.
That was until Sanjay popped up with a superb effort that looked to have put RACE LAB clear, before Day had the final say on his last flier before the red flags halted the session prematurely.
The first qualifying session of the season is set to take place at Oulton Park from 16:05.