> Top-13 covered by 0.9s
> Quaife tops GTC for Scott Sport
> Result: Silverstone FP2
Charlie Eastwood claimed the fastest time of the second Silverstone 500 free practice session this morning after a late flurry of times shuffled the order.
The second session didn’t quite match up to the rapid pace of the earlier one, but the top six did still manage to dip into the 1m58s. And it proved incredibly tight, with the top 13 GT3 runners separated by just 0.9s. Eastwood’s final 1m58.532s flier put the Beechdean Aston Martin he shares with British GT veteran Andrew Howard top of the timesheets.
The session looked like being a lockout for the RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG team, with Yelmer Buurman repeating his trick from FP1 of going fastest mid-session, knocking the championship-leading car of Patrick Kujala/Sam De Haan down to second. However, both cars ducked out early to conserve tyres ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying, meaning they both fell down the order after the late charges.
Jonny Adam made it an Aston 1-2 in the Garage 59 car he shares with Alexander West. That car had held top spot in the latter stages before Eastwood’s late effort pipped them by just under two tenths.
Rob Bell put the Balfe McLaren third, just ahead of Ollie Millroy in the Optimum Motorsport McLaren he shares with Brendan Iribe. Sandy Mitchell put in a fine late lap to sneak the Barwell Lamborghini he shares with Rob Collard into fifth, just ahead of the Buurman/Loggie RAM Mercedes.
After its session-stopping accident earlier, Steller Motorsport did a great job to get its Audi back out, with Sennan Fielding putting it seventh, fractionally faster than the Kujala/De Haan Mercedes.
Phil Keen and Adam Balon’s Barwell Lamborghini finished ninth, as Michael O’Brien and James Baldwin’s Jenson Team Rocket RJN McLaren rounded out the top 10.
Ferrari kept up its run in GTC, with Phil Quaife putting the Scott Sport car he shares with John Dhillon top ahead of the FF Corse version driven by Laurent de Meeus and Jamie Stanley. Tim Bridgman did enough to put the Team Parker Racing Porsche he shares with Karl Leonard third.
After showing well in FP1, Sam Smelt grabbed top spot in GT4 for the Speedworks Totoya team. Both he and James Kell took turns at the top of the timesheets, with Kell running fastest early on before a host of others cycled the fastest time.
Smelt’s effort put him just clear of Jamie Caroline/Dan Vaughan’s TF Sport Aston Martin, with the sister car of Patrick Kibble/Connor O’Brien right behind in third.
Pro driver Euan Hankey put he and Mia Flewitt’s Pro-Am Balfe McLaren fourth overall, ahead of Will Moore and Matt Cowley in the Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang. Patrik Matthiesen/Jordan Collard’s HHC McLaren again completed the top six.