+ Collard and Mitchell fastest across both GT3 sessions
+ Millar makes instant impression; Meakin quickest in Q4
+ Results: Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4
Barwell Motorsport's Lamborghinis shared British GT’s overall pole positions at Snetterton where Rob Collard and Sandy Mitchell topped their respective qualifying sessions earlier today.
DTO and Ginetta, meanwhile, continued to excel in GT4 qualifying by claiming a third consecutive pole position courtesy of Aston Millar before championship leader Zac Meakin bagged Race 2 pole in Optimum’s McLaren.
Collard shares Race 1's GT3 front row with team-mate Alex Martin who finished just under two tenths shy of pole before Mitchell jumped to the top of Q2 long after the chequered flag fell to deny Phil Keen and 2 Seas P1 for tomorrow’s second race.
Q3 served up the closest of the four sessions, as well as one of the narrowest in GT4 history, when Millar – making his first appearance since Donington’s finale last year – lapped just 0.003s faster than Mikey Porter and Forsetti Motorsport's Aston Martin. Meakin, meanwhile, lines up alongside Jordan Albert who scored his and Steller Motorsport's best qualifying result of the season.
Q1
Barwell's #63 Lamborghini set the Am pace in both Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying, so it was no surprise to see Collard claim pole position for Sunday's opening race. The 2020 champion didn't have things all his own way, though, after team-mate Martin hit the front initially.
Collard had served notice on his opening lap by recording fastest first and second sectors, but backed out of the lap before re-grouping. His next effort was a shade slower than Martin's, who relieved Kevin Tse of top spot on his second flyer, but Collard made no mistake next time around to move 0.139s clear despite failing to set an outright fastest sector.
That advantage then extended to 0.177s on the following lap thanks to his 1m47.861s.
Richard Neary also improved late in the 10-minute session but was denied third by Ian Loggie who left it even later. The two Mercedes-AMGs, run by 2 Seas Motorsport and Team Abba Racing respectively, therefore share row two despite lapping one second slower than the Lamborghinis ahead.
The first of Blackthorn's Aston Martins driven by Giacomo Petrobelli finished a fraction further back in fifth, while Sacha Kakad (J&S Racing Audi), championship contender Shaun Balfe (Garage 59 McLaren) and two-time Snetterton race winner John Ferguson (RAM Racing BMW) completed the top eight.
Q2
Q2 served up the afternoon's best qualifying session. Mitchell ultimately bagged pole but not before Keen and Maximilian Götz also spent time out front.
0.014s separated early pace-setter Keen from Optimum's Tom Gamble and Götz before Mitchell lapped just under a tenth faster than all three. Götz was back on top next time around, albeit by just 0.04s, before the other 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG found another tenth.
That appeared to be the end of it, but Mitchell – who snuck on to a sixth and final flying lap just before the session concluded – still had one more shot at pole. A purple first sector hinted at what was to come, and although there were no further PBs thereafter the Scot still did enough to jump from third to first long after others had pitted.
His 1m45.373s was 0.081s faster than Keen who remained one tenth quicker than Götz.
Gamble pitted after his first flying lap but still bagged a place on row two ahead of Silver-Am pace-setter Sam Neary (Team Abba Racing) and another Mercedes-AMG driven by Callum Macleod (Greystone GT).
Barwell's other Lamborghini starts seventh in Ricky Collard's hands. He shares row four with Marcus Clutton (Garage 59), while Max Hesse (RAM Racing) and Adam Smalley (Garage 59) completed a top 10 covered by one second.
Q3
Although new to the DTO Ginetta this weekend – subbing for regular driver Stuart Middleton, who has commitments elsewhere – Millar made his mark by emerging as an early frontrunner in what would become one of the tightest GT4 qualifying sessions in history.
The 2023 title contender only needed three laps to get the job done, his 1m55.435s the benchmark that others had to chase.
The task primarily fell to Porter and the championship leading Optimum McLaren driven by Brown, both of whom featured prominently in Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying. Porter got agonisingly close; his best was just 0.003s shy – the equivalent of 0.001s per mile.
Brown was only a further 0.1s back in third, with Will Moore securing a strong fourth on the grid in Academy Motorsport’s #62 Ford Mustang. Paddock’s Adam Hatfield finished fifth, while Marco Signoretti made it two Academy Mustangs in the top six.
Sai Sanjay will start RACE LAB’s McLaren Artura seventh ahead of Pro-Am pole-sitter Charles Dawson in the Team Parker Racing Mercedes-AMG.
Q4
Brown might have missed out on pole but Meakin made no mistake in GT4’s second session despite the best efforts of Steller’s Audi and DTO’s Ginetta.
Matt Nicoll-Jones took over the #62 Mustang from Moore and led the way early on, before first Charlie Robertson’s Century Motorsport BMW and then Seb Morris in the Team Parker Mercedes-AMG topped the times. Then came Meakin, who established a 0.3s advantage.
However, a string of further improvements – most notably from Albert in Steller’s Audi R8 – eroded that gap. His fastest time was 0.108s shy of Meakin’s but quick enough to seal a front row grid slot and Pro-Am pole for a team that skipped Spa last time out.
Freddie Tomlinson backed up Millar’s great work by going third fastest for DTO, with Will Orton putting Forsetti’s #47 Aston Martin fourth and second in Pro-Am behind the Audi. A deleted lap time for track limits restricted Morris to fifth, but that was still sufficient for as many different manufacturers to fill the first five grid slots.
Jamie Day was sixth in the second Forsetti Aston, with Robertson’s BMW alongside. Pre-Qualifying pace-setter Gordie Mutch could only manage eighth in the #20 Mahiki Racing Lotus, but he was still only 0.5s off pole in a session where a single second split the entire top 14.
Sunday’s two 60-minute races start at 11:25 and 16:20 BST. Both are live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel. Sky Sports F1 will show the first as it happens before Race 2 airs delayed as live that evening.