Barwell Motorsport and Steller Motorsport took pole position in GT3 and GT4 at Silverstone on Saturday afternoon with Sandy Mitchell and Sennan Fielding setting lap records in their respective classes.
Mitchell who shares the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 with Adam Balon, and Sennan Fielding who shares the Audi R8 LMS GT4 with Richard Williams recorded both the fastest combined and individual lap times, putting each of the cars clear of the competition, the Lamborghini posting a combined best of 3:56.233 (Balon: 1:59.468, Mitchell: 1:56.765), whilst the Audi posted a combined best of 4:18.835 (Williams: 2:09.721, Fielding 2:09.114).
GT3
Alex Malykhin in the Redline Racing topped the GT3 Am session, meaning the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 he partners with James Dorlin will start alongside Balon/Mitchell on the front row and in Silver-Am pole position with a combined best time of 3:57.007 (Malykhin: 1:59.303, Dorlin: 1:57.704). In combined times, the Redline Lamborghini was just 0.7s behind Barwell and 0.003s ahead of the 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes AMG of James Cottingham and Lewis Williamson.
Three tenths of a second covered the top five cars with Alex Malykhin securing provision pole at the halfway mark of the session, 0.137 up on Kevin Tse in the Sky Tempesta Racing Mercedes AMG who set a time of 1:59.440, from James Cottingham in the 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes with a time of 1:59.467 just one thousandth of a second ahead of Adam Balon (1:59.468).
Sandy Mitchell put an end to qualifying in the second session with an unbeatable time of 1:56.765, four tenths quicker than Phil Keen in the WPI Lamborghini (1:58.574) and 0.7 seconds up on Jonny Adam (1:57.458) who was making his return to the championship alongside Flick Haigh in a Mercedes AMG run by 2 Seas Motorsport.
With Sandy Mitchell laying down the bench mark, all eyes were on who would claim the second spot on the front row. It would eventually go the way of James Dorlin, Richard Williamson falling 0.003 short.
Elsewhere in class, Sam and Richard Neary took fifth and sixth in their respective sessions, enough to enable the Team Abba Mercedes AMG to line up on the second row alongside Cottingham and Williamson and ahead of the Ram Racing Mercesdes AMG of Ian Loggie and Callum Macleod. The Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S of Nick Moss and Joe Osborne, in a one off appearance, were the fastest of the McLarens, claiming sixth overall. The Sky Tempesta Mercedes dropped to seventh by the end of qualifying with the Assetto Motorsport Bentley of Mark Sansom and Will Tregurtha rounding out the fourth row with a combined time of 3:57.944. Former champion Jonny Adam took second place in the second qualifying session, which was enough to pull the 2 Seas Mercedes he shares with Flick Haigh up to ninth after a poor run for her in the first session which involved a spin at Maggots and Beckets saw her finish 12th. The visiting Garage 59 McLaren of Alexander West and Marvin Kirchhoefer rounded out the top 10 with a combined time of 3:58.202. Team Parker Racing failed to qualify following a gearbox issue but are expected to run tomorrow.
A breakdown of full qualifying results can be found on the TSL Timing website:
https://www.tsl-timing.com/file/?f=BF3GT/2022/221805qc3bgt.pdf
GT4
The Steller Motorsport Audi topped both of the qualifying sessions with Marco Signoretti and Matt Cowley claiming the second fastest times in each of the sessions, putting the Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang GT4 on the front row with a time of 4:20.24 (Signoretti: 2:10.444, Cowley 2:09.796) ahead of the R Racing Aston Martin of Josh Miller and Jamie Day who set a combined time of 4:20.328 (Miller: 2:10.509, Day: 2:09.819). Further back, Pro-Am pole went to Newbridge Motorsport pairing Matt Topham and Darren Turner.
It was a second pole position in three rounds with the pairing of Williams and Fielding not starting lower than second so far. The Audi took a combined 1.4s lead over anyone else in class, Fielding smashing the GT4 record in the process, beating Scott Malvern’s previous lap record set in 2020.
Ross Wylie and Matthew Graham will line up fourth on the grid in the Valluga Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport. Jack Brown and Will Burns, reigning 2021 GT4 Champion, start the race in fifth place in the #90 Century Motorsport BMW M4 with Pro-Am pole sitters Matt Topham and Darren Turner starting sixth in the Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin with a combined time of 4:21.523. The #9 Century Motorsport BMW will start 7th on the grid, the Assetto Motorsport Ginetta G56 will start 8th with the #48 Toyota Gazoo Racing Supra and #65 Team Parker Porsche Cayman 718 Cayman rounding out the top 10.
A breakdown of full qualifying results can be found on the TSL Timing website:
https://www.tsl-timing.com/file/?f=BF3GT/2022/221805qc4bgt.pdf
