Ian Loggie and Jules Gounon led the way in a damp and disrupted opening free practice session at Silverstone, with their 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG making the most of a single narrow window for slick tyres to grab the fastest time. Meanwhile Zac Meakin was fastest in GT4 for Team Parker Racing, despite the #18 Porsche 718 Cayman losing track time with damage.
The session got underway with drizzle falling on an already wet track, leading to tentative early stages as the field tried to sus out the conditions. Raffaele Marciello was the first to set a representative time in the RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG, before Dan Harper in the Century BMW M4 GT3 and then Ross Gunn’s Beechdean Aston Martin Vantage AMR took turns at the top.
Then, with the track just starting to dry, Gounon fitted slick rubber and hit the front with a time that initially put he and Loggie two seconds clear of anybody. Jonny Adam made it a 2 Seas one-two, but even his best left him and team-mate James Cottingham almost a second adrift.
Some strong work from Callum Macleod helped the Greystone GT Mercedes-AMG he shares with Mike Price to third fastest after his own run on dry tyres. Ian Campbell and James Kell’s RACE LAB McLaren and Alexander West/Marvin Kirchhöfer completed the top six.
Hopes of any late improvements were dashed when the red flags came out when Enduro Motorsport’s McLaren Artura GT4 ground to a halt out on track with a technical issue, meaning the session ended nine minutes early.
GT4 turned out to be a head-to-head contest between Meakin and Team BRIT’s Bobby Trundley. Meakin set the pace from the start aboard the Team Parker Porsche 718 Cayman he shares with Dan Vaughan, but Trundley then snuck past by just 0.074s when the track was at its best.
Meakin went out again and managed to pull a further two tenths to put the place beyond doubt, but was then caught in an unlucky tangle with Optimum Motorsport’s McLaren GT3, which sent both cars back to the pits for bodywork repairs.
Bradley Ellis and David Holloway were third fastest in Century Motorsport’s Aston Martin Vantage AMR, with Harry George and Darren Burke’s Enduro McLaren winding up fourth despite its session-halting issues.
Ian Gough and Tom Wrigley were fifth in RACE LAB’s McLaren Artura GT4, with Carl Cavers and Lewis Plato rounding out the top six aboard the #22 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4. Notable absentees from the top times were Oulton Park stars Jack Brown and Charles Clark, who mostly skipped the session while their Optimum McLaren received attention for an electrical issue.