> Result: FP2
TF Sport and Aston Martin maintained their collective grip on British GT practice at Brands Hatch this morning after Marco Sorensen topped a red flag-shortened second session. Meanwhile, GT4 championship leader Jack Mitchell claimed the class’ fastest time aboard Century Motorsport’s #43 BMW.
Barrier damage caused by Matt Manderson’s accident at Paddock Hill Bend cut short the scheduled hour-long session by 15 minutes, but that wasn’t enough to deny TF Sport a second fastest time in as many sessions. Having seen team-mate Nicki Thiim do the business in FP1, fellow Dane Sorensen produced the weekend’s fastest lap so far – 1m25.552s – en route to top spot.
Darren Turner’s early flyer was sufficient to give Beechdean AMR second, albeit 0.552s behind Sorensen, while Callum Macleod again finished in the top-three aboard Team Parker Racing’s #7 Bentley.
The ERC Sport Mercedes-AMG was next up in the hands of Yelmer Buurman who finished two tenths behind Macleod and just 0.050s ahead of Optimum Motorsport’s Jonny Adam. TF Sport’s FP1 pace-setting V12 Vantage completed the top-six ahead of Jetstream Motorsport and the first of Barwell’s Lamborghinis.
In GT4, Jack Mitchell – winner of the last two British GT races – led a Century Motorsport one-two. The BMW M4 he shares with Dean Macdonald set a best of 1m33.538s to beat team-mates Ben Tuck and Ben Green by 0.153s.
Matt Nicoll-Jones’ Academy Motorsport Aston Martin finished best of the rest in third, one place ahead of Team Parker Racing’s Scott Malvern who’d earlier topped the morning’s opening session.
Tolman Motorsport’s #5 McLaren driven by Lewis Proctor was only 0.015s further back, while last year’s Brands Hatch winner Jan Jonck – who shares his Aston Martin with Tom Wood – ensured both Academy entries finished inside the top-six.
ProTechnika’s Mercedes-AMG and Tolman’s #4 McLaren rounded out the top-eight.
The accident that ended the session early also resulted in Ultimate Speed’s Aston Martin being withdrawn from the event, while Tolman Motorsport’s #56 McLaren has been ruled out of qualifying while the team change its engine.
Qualifying begins at 16:00 this afternoon.