+ Lamborghinis lock out front row; GT3 championship leaders Dawson/Jewiss fourth
+ Garlick and Angliss beat Century to GT4 top spot
+ Qualifying Result: #DoningtonDecider
Rob Collard and Hugo Cook led a Barwell front row lockout for this year’s #DoningtonDecider, while Mahiki celebrated its seventh British GT4 pole position thanks to Luke Garlick and Blake Angliss.
The Lamborghinis were tied on combined times for much of the second session before Cook improved to edge clear of team-mate Sandy Mitchell who set fastest individual time in the car he shares with Alex Martin.
Orange/JMH’s McLaren finished an excellent third courtesy of Marcus Clutton, who was second in Q2, and Simon Orange’s super sub this weekend, Matt Topham.
GT3 championship leaders Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss were disappointed with fourth but crucially start ahead of their three title rivals. 2 Seas’ Mercedes-AMG is two places clear of Blackthorn’s Aston Martin, while 2 Seas’ other entry and the Optimum McLaren share row four.
Silver-Am championship leaders Andrew Howard and Tom Wood (Beechdean) start an excellent fifth.
Further back, Mahiki maintained its stranglehold on GT4 qualifying. Its cars have only been beaten twice on Saturday this year, but this was the first time that Angliss and Garlick topped the session. They crushed the opposition by a combined eight tenths despite Team Parker’s Seb Morris setting the fastest individual time.
Championship leaders Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson (Century) start alongside and, crucially, three places clear of their main rivals Marc Warren and Jack Brown (Optimum).
GT3: BARWELL OVERSHADOWS TITLE CONTENDERS
An early red flag caused by Abba’s stranded Mercedes-AMG effectively reduced Q1 by three minutes. But Collard needed only one lap to hand Cook a handy advantage.
The reigning champion, who cannot defend his crown this weekend, initially lapped 0.7s faster than early pace-setter Giacomo Petrobelli before Blackthorn’s Aston Martin and Dawson reduced their arrears to three tenths.
Beechdean’s encouraging session began with Howard taking P4 ahead of the returning Darren Leung in Blackthorn’s other Vantage, while Topham was an excellent sixth on his first appearance in the Orange/JMH McLaren.
Martin, on the other hand, left team-mate Mitchell with work to do by finishing an uncharacteristic 0.9s behind the session-leading Huracan.
The Scot isn’t a Lamborghini factory driver for nothing, however, and set the fastest individual lap at the start of Q2 to draw dead level with Cook on the combined times. #1 subsequently improved by 0.210s to claim pole, but Mitchell’s heroics were still sufficient to lift his car from seventh to second.
His dominance was confirmed by a four tenth advantage over Q2’s next best performer, Clutton, who vaulted Orange/JMH’s McLaren three places up the order.
2 Seas’ #42 car dropped two positions to fourth, but Dawson and Jewiss do at least start ahead of their three championship rivals – all of whom must win to have any hope of overturning their significant points’ deficits.
Beechdean finished fastest of the three Astons in fifth – one place ahead of Petrobelli and Adam who have work to do in pursuit of the title tomorrow.
GT4: MAHIKI DOWN BUT NOT OUT
Mahiki has faced a character building weekend so far, but Garlick and Angliss gave the squad some much-needed cheer by extending the team’s qualifying hot streak.
With the GT3 withdrawn after a testing accident and the sister Ginetta receiving significant repairs, it fell to the sole remaining G56 to do the business. A superb opening effort from Garlick was backed up by Angliss who collectively secured Mahiki’s third pole in a row.
Away from the fight for top spot, the championship interest swung the way of Century’s Ramyead and Robertson who crucially qualified three places ahead of Warren and Brown.
But there was no denying Garlick who laid the initial foundations by going fastest on lap two and gradually extended the advantage to an eventual 0.627s thereafter. Angliss only had to hold the buffer in Q4 but went even faster than Garlick’s best to take pole by 0.845s on combined times.
Ramyead, meanwhile, finished third in Q3 before Robertson then overcame a fast lap time being deleted for track limits to go third fastest overall in the final session, which moved the #71 BMW on to the front row.
Seb Morris took the honour of being fastest of all in Q4, helping he and Ed McDermott’s Team Parker Mercedes-AMG to finish third overall and alongside Silver championship leaders Harry George and Luca Hopkinson.
The pressure will now be on their Optimum team-mates Warren and Brown who share row three with Century’s other BMW shared by Branden Templeton and Chris Salkeld.
British GT’s #DoningtonDecider is live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel at 13:15 BST on Sunday.
