+ Result: Free Practice, Spa-Francorchamps
Orange Racing’s McLaren and the new Mahiki Racing Ginetta set the pace during a tight opening Free Practice at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, with the top runners separated by mere fractions of a second.
Marcus Clutton got the job done for the Orange Racing McLaren early, pulling his usual trick of being quick out of the blocks to establish the #67 720S he shares with Simon Orange at the head of the pack.
Josh Miller did likewise for the new-look Mahiki team, impressively putting the squad’s new Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo out front for himself and new team-mate Jack Mitchell.
When the lights went green Callum Macleod (#3 Optimum McLaren), Sam Neary (Team Abba Mercedes-AMG) and Clutton all took turns trading the fastest time before Clutton established a comfortable gap on his fourth tour.
The session was then interrupted when the #42 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG and the #3 McLaren came together, stranding driver Kiern Jewiss out on track. After a short red flag to recover the stricken Mercedes, few made meaningful improvements.
Tom Wood brought the Beechdean AMR Aston Martin he shares with Andrew Howard up to second, but was still 0.2s off Clutton. Matt Topham/Macleod were third, despite the hit out on track, ahead of Giacomo Petrobelli/Jonny Adam’s Blackthorn AMR Vantage. Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin were fifth in the Spirit of Race Ferrari, with Morgan Tillbrook/Marvin Kirchhöfer rounding out the top six in their Optimum McLaren. In fact, the entire top nine were split by just 0.6s.
It was a similar story in GT4, with Miller bolting early to set an time that proved unbeatable on his first official session with the Mahiki Ginetta.
Chris Salkeld (Century BMW) and Luca Hopkinson (Optimum McLaren) set the early pace before Miller hit the front on lap three and never looked back. A late improvement from Charlie Robertson brought the #71 Century BMW he shares with Ravi Ramyead up to second, first in Pro-Am, ahead of the Harry George/Hopkinson McLaren that had starred in Friday testing.
Phil Keen/Jon Currie were fourth in their Team Parker Racing Mercedes-AMG ahead of Salkeld/Branden Templeton and Ian Duggan/Joe Wheeler in the #88 Mahiki Ginetta.
Pre-Qualifying is scheduled to begin at 13:05 local time, and will be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel.