2 Seas Motorsport Win from Pole on their British GT Comeback at Silverstone.

QUALIFYING: GT3 Pole Position for 2 Seas Motorsport

2 Seas Motorsport returned to the British GT Championship with their new stunning #14 Mercedes-AMG GT3.

After showing great pace in the days practice sessions, Hunter Abbott and Martin Kodric stormed to Pole in both GT3 sessions. Based off their one-lap pace, they were gonna take some beating in this year’s Silverstone 500.

After initially qualifying second, the #38 TF Sport Aston Martin of Charlie Eastwood and Giacomo Petrobelli were given a two-place grid penalty for a track infringement.

Subsequently, Barwell Motorsport’s Sandy Mitchell and co-driver Adam Balon were subsequently promoted to second. Ram Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Ian Loggie and Yelmer Buurman completed the revised top three.

GT3 Top Ten: 1st – #14, 2nd – #1, 3rd – #6, 4th – #77, 5th – #38, 6th – #95, 7th – #63, 8th – #7, 9th – #66, 10th – #70.

Elsewhere, Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding secured the GT4 Pole despite neither driver setting the overall fastest time in their session.

After a strong end to qualifying, the #15 Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Scott McKenna and John Ferguson lined up alongside the Steller Motorsport Audi. Century Motorsport’s Will Burns and Gus Burton started third and Darren Turner and Matt Topham making their British Gt race debut together in the Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 starting a strong 4th and the #56 Assetto Motorsport Ginetta starting in 5th place.

GT4 Top Ten: 1st – #42, 2nd – #15, 3rd – #57, 4th – #27, 5th – #56, 6th – #9, 7th – #40, 8th – #3, 9th – #90, 10th – #4.

2 Seas Motorsport Win Silverstone 500 in Style

GT3:

2 Seas Motorsport came back to the British GT with a bang and they looked untouchable and starting from pole. Abbott and Kodric demonstrated stunning pace all weekend and despite  the overcast conditions during the three-hour race.

After some close racing at the start and during the first pit-stop phase, it soon became clear that the #14 Mercedes was on course for victory. Although there was an near-scare with a track-limits warning, the dynamic duo were in cruise control.

Not the Inception They’d Hoped For

Things may have been a little different at the front, with the #70 Inception Racing McLaren running well in second place. At one stage looked like they would be able to fight for the win, but that ended whilst they encountered lapped traffic.

Their McLaren had a coming together when lapping the #25 Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 at Chapel. Subseqeuntly, the suspension was damaged, bringin gtheir race to a premature end.

Technical Gremlins Undoes Richard Neary’s Opening Stint

Richard Neary produced an outstanding opening stint in the #8 Team Abba Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

After starting from tenth place, Richard Neary was showing some great pace and was soon up to fourth. Not long after, that quickly became third, when he made a great move on the #38 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 at Vale.

Neary then set his sights on second, closing the gap on the car in front to just 0.2 seconds.

But Team Abba’s promise proved to be short lived. After their first stop, Sam Neary took over in the No.8 Mercedes, but had a warning on the steering wheel. Subsequent gear selection problems followed, which forced him back into the pits.

After discovering an issue with the gearbox’s air compressor, Team Abba somehow managed to get the car back out near the end. But they then, any change of a strong finish had been extingushed.

Barwell keep 2 Seas Honest

Barwell Motorsport gave 2 Seas Motorsport a run for their money in the early stints of the race.

Despite Leo Machitski spinning on the opening lap in the #63 Lamborghini, the Russian made a remarkable recovery to bring them into contention.

Dennis Lind drove after the first pitstop, who utlised his relative pace to close in on the leader and pass the #14 Mercedes during their stop.

The advantage would swung back in favour of 2 Seas Motorsport, as Lind had a 10-second success penalty added to his second stop for finishing third at Brands Hatch.

Consequently, Lind was 18 seconds behind the leader when he started his final stint.

With the strong pace in the latter stages from the #14 Mercedes-AMG GT3 saw it increase its lead at the front and a battle was now on between the two Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini’s to see who finished second.

The battle between the two Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini’s went on until the final lap when the pair encountered some GT4 traffic at Maggots and Becketts. That gave Sandy Mitchell in the #1 Lamborghini the opportunity at Stowe, where he made a brilliant  move around the outside to take second.

Even though there was a little bit of wheel banging between the two cars, both made it pout unscathed.

TF Sport Best of the Rest in GT3

TF Sport made a strong return to the British GT aboard their #38 Aston Martin, as Giacomo Petrobelli and Charlie Eastwood finished in fourth, albeit 27 seconds behind the winners.

Ram Racing’s #6 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Yelmer Buurman and Ian Loggie came home in fifth, after losing time during the opening stint whilst avoiding the spinning #70 McLaren.

The #7 Beechdean Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 of Jonny Adam and Andrew Howard didn’t quite have the same pace as the leaders.

Nevertheless, they did survive being T-Boned by the Enduro Motorsport McLaren and overcame a 15-second success penalty to claim a solid sixth place overall. As a result, they retain second in the standings.

Paddock Motorsport looked odds on for a top-six finish on their British GT debut before a left-rear driveshaft failure sidelined their #11 Bentley Continental GT3 in the final stint.

TF Sport 2nd Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 shared by Bonamy Grimes and Marco Sorensen started 13th and finished 8th overall.

* Because race winners 2 Seas Motorsport enter race by race, this means the the #1 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini gets awarded maximum points and so on.

GT3 TOP TEN: #14 – #1 – #63 – #38 – #6 – #7 – #95 – #69 – #66M – #5.

GT4: Debut Win for Newbridge Motorsport

Newbridge Motorsport enjoyed a dream British GT debut after coming out on top of a four-way fight for the GT4 win.

After playing down the teams chances in this year’s Silverstone 500, Newbridge Motorsport started in fourth place after impressive qualifying session. Their drivers Darren Turner and Matt Topham had a good platform for the race, but needed to overcome strong challenges from BMW, Toyota and Audi.

At the start of the race, the #42 Steller Motorsport Audi made a great start and within 30 minutes they’d opened up a gap of 2.5 seconds.

An early stop to hand the car over to Sennan Fielding seemed to put themselves out of touch, but Steller Motorsport had a plan for the final stint which nearly worked out.

Brands Hatch winners Will Burns and Gus Burton in the #57 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 took over from the lead, which they maintained for the majority of the race. However, they carried the burden of a 20-second success penalty at the final pitstop and extra time on top as a silver cup entry, to equalize them with the pro-am crews.

This push both Century Motorsport entries into two very long opening stints, hoping to pull out a big enough gap at the front to negate the penalties or to make the most of any safety car interruptions, but none was forthcoming.

The #15 Toyota GR Supra GT4 of John Ferguson and Scott McKenna had a difficult opening stint. After starting second on the GT4 grid, they dropped to just inside the top six, but McKenna’s stunning pace in their second stint brought them back into contention.

Turner Charges On

Newbridge Motorsport had a strong opening stint with Matt Topham at the wheel, he handed the car over to Aston Martin factory driver Darren Turner.

Immediately, Turner chased down Burton’s BMW mid-race and soon made his move for the lead and gave us a early clue that we were in for an exciting end to the race.

Century Motorsport stuck to their long running plan and saved their final two pitstops for the last half-hour run-in.

Despite their persistence, the safety car interruption they had hoped for did not arrive. They could only watch from the pits as Darren Turner retook the lead in the closing stages.

The drama wasn’t over though, as Williams and Fielding did a great job with their early pitstop strategy to move up the order and ran two seconds behind the leader in the final laps. But Turner with all his experience soaked up the pressure to stay ahead to take the chequered flag.

Steller Motorsport’s Audi had to be content with silver cup honours.

Toyota Gazoo Racing UK pip Century Motorsport to GT4 Podium

Toyota Gazoo Racing UK’s strong second stint helped them vault past the #57 century Motorsport BMW and with it secured the final podium spot. Although Burns and Burton had to settle for fourth place, they still managed to increase their championship advantage.

The #56 Ginetta of Mark Sansom and Charlie Robertson both drove superbly to finish fifth place, despite an early penalty for a pitstop infringement, The #9 Century Motorsport took sixth and the #61 Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang of Matt Cowley and Will Moore finished seventh.

GT4 TOP TEN: #27 – #42 – #15 – #57 – #56 – #9 – #61 – #3 – #2 – #25.

• Round 3 of the British Gt is at Donington Park on the 10th / 11th July.