Matt Griffin waited until the final 45 seconds of the half hour Avon Tyres British GT Championship qualifying session to put the MTECH Ferrari 458 GT3 on pole for the two hours race around the Brands Hatch Grand Prix track.
Griffin, who shares the no.21 Ferrari with Duncan Cameron lead a Ferrari 1-2-3 that came together in the final minutes of the session. Glynn Geddie had brought the CRS Racing 458 into provisional pole position, linking up three personal best sectors for a time of 1:26.605 on the tenth and final flying lap for the car he shares with his father Jim. Glynn's time, however was over half a second slower than Griffin's pole time.
Griffin and Cameron's car had been consistently on pole – or at least challenging – throughout the 30 minutes, but Geddie's last race burst put CRS in the middle of a Griffin versus Allan Simonsen battle that looked set to decide pole inside the final five minutes of qualifying.
Allan Simonsen turned the third fastest lap in the older 430 Scuderia he shares with Hector Lester. A full second off the pole time Jonathan Adam was the best non-Ferrari for Beechdean Motorsport.
The pair of Trackspeed Porsches will form the third row of the grid after fast laps from Stephen Jelley in the no.1 car and Tim Bridgman in the no.2 both set on their final flying laps at the end of Saturday's running at Brands Hatch. Bridgman had been one of the most notable and obvious drivers to be frustrated by the decree that both drivers had to complete three timed laps, his annoyance evident as he waited on the pitwall for teammate Gregor Fisken to finish his own run in the Porsche.
Thomas Mutsch put the RPM Ford GT seventh fastest, a fine end to a day that began with the car in the Paddock Hill Bend. Adam Wilcox and Phil Burton's Predator CCTV Ferrari, Scuderia Vittoria's Ferrari 458 and Chad Racing's 430 completed the top, the Chad entry only merging onto the track in the second half of the session after the team had cured technical problems that also curtailed their practice running. CRS Racing's second 458 – making it's race debut this weekend – was abothe to face problems the Alex Mortimer and Andrew Tate car only completing four laps due to an ignition problem.
Matt Bell and Michael Guasch, championship leaders before this weekend could only manage 12th fastest one spot ahead of their teammates Jay Palmer and John Bintcliffe.
ABG Motorsport's KTMs dominated GT4, taking the top two spots in class
The two ABG Motorsport KTM Xbow took the top two places in GT4, Marcus Clutton the man laying claim to the fastest lap in class in the no.44 car.
In the GT3B and GTC class it was a case of situation normal as, despite greater competitionthe season regulars up to now won the class poles.
Aaron Scott led GT3B in the MTECH car he will co-drove with John Dhillon beating the 22GT Racing Aston Martin by a comfortable 0.760 seconds.
The Chevron team of Anthony Reid and Jordan Witt was able to enjoy the session unopposed after the Magic Racing Ginetta – their only rivals this weekend – failed to appear in the session after grinding to a halt during the earlier free practice session.
