+ Result, Pre-Qualifying, Oulton Park
If Sven Müller’s Pre-Qualifying pace was anything to go by, Oulton Park’s GT3 lap record looks set to be demolished this weekend as the Team Parker Racing Porsche flew to a new top time.
The Porsche factory ace dipped into the 1:31.7s bracket, a full 1.1s below the existing race lap record to top the session in the car he shares with Nick Jones.
It was a similar story in GT4, with Aiden Neate’s best also well beneath the race lap record as Mahiki Racing’s grip on the top spots continued.
With the track now completely dry, the pace of the session became quickly notable, with Müller quick out of the blocks to top the early times before being deposed by Maximilian Götz in the #18 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG before the pro drivers handed to their am counterparts for the middle stages of the session.
Running was halted when Giacomo Petrobelli suffered an off in the Blackthorn Aston Martin and needed recovery from Druids under red flags. Running resumed with just under a third of the hour remaining, and this was when the fastest times would come.
Sandy Mitchell was the first to improve in the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini and looked set to hold on before Müller strapped in for one final run, closed to within a tenth on his first effort and then pulled 0.2s up with his last just before the flag.
Mitchell and Alex Martin were second, ahead of Richard and Sam Neary in their Team Abba Racing Mercedes-AMG. Götz and Kevin Tse were fourth for 2 Seas, ahead of Rob Collard and Hugo Cook in the #1 Lamborghini. Andrew Howard and Tom Wood rounded out the top six in the Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martin.
GT4 played out much to the same form as Free Practice with Charlie Robertson setting the early pace before the Mahiki Lotus brigade again rotated the top time between them.
Neate emerged from the intra-team battle, with his 1:41.6s being also significantly under the class lap record, even if it fell just shy of Jack Mitchell’s best from practice in the sister Emira.
Harry George and Luca Hopkinson also broke the Mahiki sequence by grabbing second in their Optimum McLaren, just a fraction behind Neate, while Ravi Ramyead and Robertson improved to third for Century. Steven Lake and Jack Mitchell were fourth for Mahiki with Marc Warren and Jack Brown’s Optimum Artura rounding out the top five.
Qualifying is scheduled for 15:52.