Result: Free Practice 2
Scott Malvern’s perfectly timed late-session dash netted top spot for Team Parker Racing’s Porsche in second free practice at Snetterton, as Century Motorsport duo Will Burns and Gus Burton hit the front in GT4 by making the most of the changing conditions.
GT3
A heavy shower just before the session began led to a relatively sedate start to proceedings, as many waited for the worst of the water to clear before venturing out. And that resulted in a flurry of times as soon as the rain eased, with Malvern’s final-lap effort on a drying track eclipsing the field.
Marcus Clutton attempted to repeat his trick from FP1 by going fastest initially in the Enduro McLaren before Martin Plowman surpassed him in Paddock Motorsport’s Bentley, and then Lewis Proctor took a turn at the top with Balfe Motorsport’s McLaren.
But as the track began to evolve, Buurman timed a mid-session run perfectly to pump in a lap four seconds faster than everybody as the #6 RAM Mercedes-AMG showed its prowess in mixed conditions. While Buurman would go on to improve the benchmark even further late on, he couldn’t quite hold on to top spot as Malvern made the most of the best track conditions to produce two purple sectors on the very last lap of the session and sneak ahead by three tenths.
Phil Keen also leapfrogged Buurman for second at the death in the WPI Lamborghini he shares with Michael Igoe, leaving Ian Loggie/Buurman third at the flag. Adam Balon/Sandy Mitchell were fourth in the first of the Barwell Lamborghinis, ahead of Ahmad Al Harthy/Charlie Eastwood’s Oman Aston Martin. That car could well have been higher as Eastwood was on for a personal best but pitted before completing the lap.
Andrew Howard/Jonny Adam were sixth in the Beechdean Aston Martin, with championship leaders Leo Machitski/Dennis Lind rounding out the top seven in Barwell’s second Huracan.
GT4
As in opening practice Scott McKenna made a good fist of pulling clear at the top of the times early on. But, unlike the morning, improving track conditions brought Century’s championship-leading BMW into play.
McKenna ran as high as second overall in the times early on as the Supra thrived in the soaked conditions, but as the track improved he was displaced first by Charlie Robertson’s Assetto Motorsport Ginetta G56 and then by Will Burns, who put in a superb lap in the intermediate conditions.
Ricky Collard/James Kell wound up second fastest in the #2 Team Rocket RJN McLaren but were 1.4s off the pace of the leading BMW. Robertson’s best left the Ginetta he shares with Mark Sansom third, ahead of RJN’s other two McLarens shared by Michael Benyahia/Alain Valente and Harry Hayek/Katie Milner, respectively.
Richard Williams/Sennan Fielding’s Steller Motorsport Audi completed the top six ahead of qualifying. McKenna and John Ferguson’s Toyota would eventually end up 10th fastest after a series of late improvements from its rivals.
Qualifying gets underway at 15:55 BST this afternoon.