Seb Morris has set down a marker to fellow British GT Championship rivals that the Team Parker Racing Bentley Continental GT3 will be able to conquer the twists of Oulton Park having finished Free Practice One fastest.
The session got underway under sunny skies in Cheshire but – as typical for a bank holiday weekend in Britain – it quickly clouded over. That didn’t stop the heat building on track though as teams got back into the swing of British GT action a month after the Rockingham round at the end of April.
Jody Fannin set the early pace in the PFL Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 with a 1:38.224 but that was quickly beaten by Ian Stinton in the #32 Tolman Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT3 with a very quick 1:35.774.
That time would sit at the top for quite a bit of the first half of the session before Phil Keen, in the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3, dropped the top time down into the 1:34s with a 1:34.729. He didn’t enjoy sitting at the top long though, Seb Morris had his dander up and and knocked three-tenths off the fastest time to put the big Bentley up to first.
Come of the end of the session, the order at the top would stay roughly similar with the Bentley and Lamborghini leading the way with Beechdean AMR’s Ross Gunn finishing third in the #1. Behind him was championship leader Derek Johnston who peddled the #17 TF Sport car into fourth with a 1:34.790.
Century Motorsport finished FP1 fastest in GT4 (Credit: Craig Robertson/RacePhotography.net)
In GT4 it was a straight Ginetta battle as Mike Robinson in the PMW World Expo Racing set the fastest lap early doors with a 1:44.286 which he would later improve to a 1:44.031 but it wasn’t enough to stay in first position as Nathan Freke carried on the blistering form he’s showed so far this year to log a 1:43.999 and finish the session in first place. Making it an all Ginetta podium was Scott Malvern who popped the Simpson Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4 into third with a 1:44.127.
GT4 also provided the only incident of note in the 60 minute session as Kieran Griffin in the #47 JW Bird Aston Martin pulled over coming out of Cascades with the car returning to the pits a touch worse for wear after the session ended.
