British GT: Barwell’s Keen Quickest In FP1

Phil Keen, at the wheel of the #72 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 he shares with Adam Balon, went quickest in the opening practice session for Rounds Seven and Eight, the Lamborghini factory driver lapping the #72 car in 2:07.057 around a grey and wet Snetterton.

Second quickest in the opening session was Sandy Mitchell in the sister #78 Lamborghini in which the 20-year-old is currently second in the GT3 drivers standings with teammate Rob Collard. Mitchell lapped the 4.78 kms Norfolk circuit in 2:07.362

Completing the top three on the timing screens for FP1 was the #66 Team Parker Racing Bentley Continental GT3 in which Scott Malvern lapped in 2:09.055.

The GT4 class saw the #58 HHC Motorsport McLaren 570S driven by Patrik Matthiesen and Jordan Collard go quickest with a 2:16.221 while the ##97 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 second quickest with a 2:16.266.

As the session opened, Phil Keen in the #72 Lamborghini was immediately on the pace, the double winner at the same circuit in 2019 lapping in 2:12.073. Yelmer Buurman was second quickest after five minutes in the #6 AM Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 with a 2:14.307.

Keen continued to push and took over two seconds off his best time with a 2:09.644 on his third lap.

The Italian marque showed its pace in the wet with Sandy Mitchell in the sister #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini shaving nearly a third of a second off Phil Keen’s time with a 2:09.385.

Mitchell improved again with a 2:07.362 before Keen set the quickest time of the session with a 2:07.057

Championship leader Sam De Haan, at the wheel of the #69 RAM Racing he shares with Patrick Kujala, lapped in 2:11.309 to go fifth quickest after 20 minutes on the one-hour session.

30 minutes into the session, Phil Keen handed the #72 car over to teammate Adam Balon as Andrea Caldarelli, making his first appearance at Snetterton in the wet, went 11^th quickest in the #18 WPI Motorsport Lamborghini. Caldarelli was making his second appearance in the 2020 Intelligent Money British GT Championship after having driven the #18 Lamborghini to victory with teammate Michael Igoe at Donington.

The session was red-flagged with 12 minutes remaining after Will Moore in the #61 Ford Mustang went off at Riches and got stuck in the gravel. Practice resumed with six and half minutes remaining.

The second practice session for the Intelligent Money British GT Championship gets underway at 11.55 with the first of the four ten-minute qualifying sessions beginning at 4.00pm.