Result: Free Practice 1
Mia Flewitt and Euan Hankey led the way in the opening free practice session at Brands Hatch, setting the fastest time before a lengthy red flag interrupted the running. Meanwhile, the GT4 title-chasing Steller Motorsport Audi of Sennan Fielding and Richard Williams topped their class.
In truth the session was perhaps rather unrepresentative of the pecking order this weekend, with running getting underway on a circuit that was dry on the Indy section of track and wet around the Grand Prix loop.
Indeed, Hankey’s best time – set on lap four – was a full second off last year’s top GT3 qualifying time. Regardless, that was 0.096s up on Callum Macleod’s best effort in the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG he shares with Ian Loggie who could win the title this weekend.
The session was only green for around 20 minutes before a clash between John Ferguson’s #15 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG and Ed McDermott’s new Motus One Racing Mercedes-AMG into Hawthorn brought out the red flags. With the clean-up being a lengthy one, the session resumed with just over 10 minutes left on the clock, and by that point improvements were scarce.
Morgan Tillbrook and Marcus Clutton were third in the Enduro Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3, ahead of the similar car of Fox Motorsport duo Nick Halstead and Jamie Stanley. Stuart and Lewis Proctor were fifth – and secured the top Silver-Am time – in the Greystone GT 720S, with Adam Balon and Sandy Mitchell’s Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan rounding out the top six.
Things were tight in the GT4 division, with both the Steller Motorsport Audi and Academy Motorsport’s Ford Mustang trading the top time before the R8 slipped ahead before the stoppage.
Josh Miller led the early laps in the R Racing Aston Martin he shares with Jamie Day until Matt Cowley and Marco Signoretti’s Mustang usurped them. Then Fielding lowered the bar further in the Steller Audi he shares with Williams. Cowley struck back with a second effort, before Fielding went 0.029s faster just before the reds. An excellent effort from Mark Radcliffe in the Valluga Racing Porsche Cayman also stole second – and top in Pro-Am – from Cowley.
That essentially established the order, with the only real change being a late flying effort from Seb Hopkins who put his and Jamie Orton’s Team Parker Racing Porsche Cayman third, which shuffled the Mustang down to fourth with just a few minutes to run.
Jordan Collard/Tom Edgar were fifth in the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK GR Supra, while McDermott and Michael Broadhurst’s earlier time meant their Mercedes-AMG finished sixth.