Jamie Orton returned to the Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup field in style at Silverstone by topping the timesheets in official Friday testing.
Orton missed the last rounds at Rockingham three weeks ago, but hit back with the fastest time across the two timed sessions around the 1.64 mile National circuit – the second of which was plagued by red flags.
That time was nearly fourth tenths of a second faster than Andrew Richardson’s existing circuit race lap record from 2012, and gave Orton top spot by a tenth and a half.
A superb day’s running for Rob Boston Racing saw their two cars complete the top three, with debutant Jordan Stilp edging out new team-mate Tom Wrigley by 0.109s.
Will Burns and series returnee Stefan Hodgetts completed the top five, with championship protagonists Carl Breeze and Tom Oliphant sixth and seventh respectively.
Both were within half a second of Orton’s best, with Callum Pointon, Ollie Jackson and Ryan Hadfield rounding out a top ten separated by 0.905s.
Bradley Smith was eleventh, the first of the drivers to set his best time of the day in the second session ahead of newcomer Tom Hibbert and returness David Pittard and Carl Boardley.
Graham Johnson was the fastest of the AM class runners in fifth overall, the recently-crowned British GT4 vice-champion setting a 59.618s lap to edge out Colin White by 0.022s.
