> Result: FP2
Yelmer Buurman made his annual visit to the top of the Silverstone 500 timesheets by just pipping a brace of Barwell Lamborghinis to put the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 he shares with Ian Loggie fastest in Saturday’s second practice session.
Meanwhile, GT4 appeared to be headed the way of Newbridge Motorsport once again until a fine late effort from Toyota Gazoo Racing UK’s Scott McKenna stole top spot.
GT3
Having also topped practice here last year, Buurman again made the difference for RAM Racing en route to the day’s fastest time thus far: 1m59.060s.
Sandy Mitchell set the initial pace in the Huracan he shares with Barwell co-driver Adam Balon, but he was soon overhauled by the sister #63 car in the hands of Dennis Lind. Just 0.002s split the two Lamborghinis early on, while Martin Plowman held third in the Paddock Motorsport Bentley also featuring Kelvin Fletcher.
The session was interrupted when Richard Neary spun into the gravel at Stowe, bringing out the red flags. Running resumed with just over half an hour left, but there was little in the way of improvements until RAM installed Buurman and sent him out for the final 15 minutes. The flying Dutchman immediately lit up the timing screens and eventually hit the front with just over 11 minutes left.
Mitchell went back out to try and respond, but his best effort fell just 0.066s shy of Buurman’s time, ensuring both practice sessions went the way of Mercedes-AMG following 2 Seas’ impressive showing in the opening session.
Lind was third fastest, ahead of Bonamy Grimes and Marco Sørensen’s TF Sport Aston Martin, which leapfrogged the Paddock Motorsport Bentley late on.
Hunter Abbott and Martin Kodrić finished the session sixth fastest in the 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG, just ahead of the second TF Sport Aston shared by Giacomo Petrobelli and Charlie Eastwood. Stuart and Lewis Proctor completed the top eight in their Balfe Motorsport McLaren.
GT4
For a good portion of the session the tussle for the top time appeared a repeat of the day’s first outing, with Sennan Fielding again setting an early benchmark in the Steller Motorsport Audi R8 for Darren Turner to chase in his Newbridge Aston Martin. However, neither would come out on top as a late effort from Scott McKenna snatched that accolade from Toyota Gazoo Racing UK.
Fielding pumped in his customary early lap to set the tone before handing across to team-mate Richard Williams, but this time Newbridge moved early to swap Matt Topham with Turner, and the Aston Martin factory driver duly placed the crew on the top of the times at mid-distance.
Things looked set from there, until McKenna went back out for one final effort in the dying minutes of the session and displaced Turner by a single tenth of a second to put the GR Supra he shares with John Ferguson top of the pile.
Charlie Robertson’s best aboard the Assetto Motorsport Ginetta meant that car finished fourth, with Mark Sansom getting the bulk of the mileage in ahead of qualifying. Will Burns and Gus Burton’s Century Motorsport BMW was fifth fastest ahead of the sister car of Chris Salkeld and Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke.
The Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang of Will Moore and Matt Cowley finished seventh in the times, despite losing late running after stopping out on track. Dave Whitmore and Jake Giddings completed the top eight aboard the Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes-AMG.
Qualifying begins at 16:00 BST.