Free Practice 2 got underway under better weather conditions, but the session was punctuated by multiple red flags, effectively reducing the length of the session by a third. It was a later start for Leo Machitski in the Barwell Motorsport #63 though, as he received a ten minute stop/go penalty for exiting the pit lane during a red flag at the end of the first free practice session. The session was also fraught with track limits warnings, with a number of cars receiving warnings at turn three, and some more than one!
The first red flag was shown just six minutes in, as Jordan Collard in the #2 Team Rocket RJN Motorsport ended up stuck off in the gravel of Sector 2 briefly. At this point, Phil Keen was heading up the GT3 rankings, with the WPI Motorsport #18, ahead of the Enduro Motorsport #77, driven by Marcus Clutton, and Jonny Adam in the Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT3 of Beechdean AMR in third.
The car was quickly sorted and the cars went out again under a green flag where the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK #15 of Scott McKenna and John Ferguson started to work their way up towards the top of the GT4 pile, where they were would overtake the Academy Motorsport #61 Ford Mustang of Matt Cowley and Will Moore just as yellow flags appeared.
The yellow flags alerted us to the fact the Assetto Motorsport #56 Ginetta G56 had spun through 180degrees at Hawthorn, and the yellow flags quickly escalated to red, as it emerged that the spin had been caused by the Team Rocket #3 car had dumped it’s oil across around a third of the track, meaning both car and driver, Alain Valente needed recovering before the session could continue with 21 minutes remaining.
As the session restarted, it looked as if most cars were acting with some caution, however the G-Cat Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Greg Caton and Shamus Jennings quietly worked it’s way up into third place, as Jonny Adam pulled out a 1:25:508 lap to take the Beechdean AMR Aston Martin into the top spot in GT3 with 0.3s lead over the WPI Lamborghini of Michael Igoe with a minute left to go, meaning the #18 finished second overall. Leo Machitski in the Barwell Lambo #63 came in 4th, and the Ram Racing #6 Mercedes-AMG of Yelmer Buurman came in fifth.
In GT4, it was a much closer finish, with just 0.043s between Scott McKenna in the #15 Toyota Gazoo Racing UK Toyota GR Supra GT4 and the Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang GT4 of Matt Cowley. Will Burns was two tenths behind them in the #57 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4, just pipping the #25 Car Gods with Cicely Motorsport Mercedes-AMG driven by David Whitmore and Jake Giddings. The remaining Team Rocket RJN Motorsport McLaren 570S #4 of Harry Hayek and Katie Milner improved well through the last section taking 5th spot.
