Mia Flewitt and Euan Hankey topped the time sheets in the first session of the weekend, topping Free Practice 1 before a prolonged red flag period stopped the session. In GT4, championship contenders Steller Motorsport, in the hands of Sennan Fielding and Richard Williams topped the early times in a session of mixed conditions.
GT3
The session began wet and greasy, following a night of rainfall in the Kent countryside, the cloud hung low over the back half of the track and remained wet on the Grand Prix loop whilst dry out on the Indy Circuit. The fastest time of the session was over a second off the pace of last year’s qualifying time. The red flags made an appearance, 20 minutes into the session as the #15 Ram Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 had a coming together with the #7 Motus One Racing Mercedes GT4 through Pilgrims Drop and into Hawthorne Bend.
The GT3 Mercedes made a move around the outside of the Motus One Racing car and moved back across the front of the GT4 car, clipping the GT4 Mercedes and sending them both into the crash barrier, the GT4 car mounted the barrier and skated along the top of it at a 45-degree angle before the two cars came to rest in the gravel trap at Hawthorne Bend. The two cars have been retired from the weekend with chassis damage.
The session restarted with just 10 minutes on the clock and the track beginning to dry but there were minimal improvements from the remaining cars. The session finished with the #6 Ram Racing Mercedes in second place. Morgan Tillbrook and Marcus Clutton took third place in the Enduro Motorsport McLaren ahead of Nick Halstead and Jamie Stanley in the Fox Motorsport entry. Stuart and Lewis Proctor rounded out the top five in GT3.
GT4
With limited running, the times were extremely close in GT4. Steller Motorsport led the way; the top 10 cars were split by just 0.7s. Josh Miller set the early pace in the R Racing Aston Martin before the Academy Motorsport Mustang took the top spot. Sennan Fielding joined the fight, taking the top spot on his first hot lap and spent the next 10 minutes or so, trading times with Matt Cowley before the red flags.
Mark Radcliffe launched an attack at the restart to claim second place for the Valluga Racing Porsche Cayman and first position in Pro-Am. A late charge from Seb Hopkins put the Team Parker Racing Porsche Cayman into third, dropping the Academy Mustang to fourth. Jordan Collard and Tom Edgar rounded out the top five in the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK GR Supra.
