British GT: De Haan And Mitchell Take Poles At Snetterton

Sam De Haan, at the wheel of the #69 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, lapped a damp but drying Snetterton in 2:06.441 to take pole position for Race One, Round Seven of the 2020 Intelligent Money British GT Championship, the second pole position of the season for the #69 duo of De Haan and teammate Patrick Kujala.

The #69 crew currently leads the GT3 drivers standings.     

Joining the #69 Mercedes on the front row for the first of two one-hour sprint contests will be the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 driven by Sandy Mitchell and Rob Collard, in which the ex-BTCC ace lapped in 2:06.623.

Completing the overall top three for the first race was the #10 2 Seas Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 piloted by Jordan Witt and Jack Mitchell, Witt setting a 2:07.046 in the first of the four ten-minute qualifying sessions.

Class pole position in the GT4 category for Race One went to the #58 HHC Motorsport McLaren 570S GT4 in which Jordan Collard lapped in 2:13.611 in the car he shares with Patrick Matthiesen. The sister #57 car, driven by Gus Bowers and Chris Wesemael, will join the #58 on the front row for the first race on Sunday October 4.

Pole position for Race Two, started by the professional driver of the Pro-Am partnerships, went to the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini, Sandy Mitchell lapping in 2:04.303 in the car he shares with Rob Collard. The #78 Lamborghini will be joined on the front row by the sister #72 car, Phil Keen lapping in 2:04.846. Top three in GT3 class qualifying for Race Two was completed by Yelmer Buurman in the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes.

GT4 pole for Race Two was taken by Matt Cowley in the #61 Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang who will be joined on the front row of the class grid by Patrik Matthiesen in the #58 HHC Motorsport McLaren 570S GT4.      

The first qualifying session got underway with the track damp but drying. Nobody, however, was taking a risk and the grid was all on wet tyres.

James Baldwin, driving the #2 Jenson Team Rocket RJN McLaren 720S GT3 was first out of the pit lane, the 23-year-old looking to add to the three pole positions that the #2 crew has taken so far in 2020.

Richard Neary pitted the #8 Team ABBA Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 to adjust his tyre pressure as Ian Loggie set a provisional pole time of 2:07.472 in the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes.

With less than four minutes remaining over eight seconds covered the GT3 grid from provisional pole to 12^th.

Rob Collard, at the wheel of the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan, put in a 2:06.623 to go to the top of timing screens, six-tenths of a second quicker than Sam De Haan in the #69 RAM Racing Mercedes but De Haan was pushing on, however, and lapped in 2:06.615 on his fourth lap to go quicker than Collard by eight-thousandths of a second. De Haan managing to improve on his next lap to 2:06.441 to secure pole position.

Richard Neary’s gamble did not seem to seem to pay off as he might have expected, the #8 Mercedes only managing a 2:13.533 leaving him at the bottom of the GT3 grid for Race One.

Shortly after the start of the second session, Scott Malvern brought the #66 Team Parker Racing Bentley Continental GT3 back to the its to change back to wets as Yelmer Buurman set a 2:05.271 in the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes to take provisional pole. Phil Keen lapped just eight-thousandths slower than the Dutchman with a 2:05.279 in the #72 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini.

Championship leader Patrick Kujala in the #69 RAM Racing Mercedes could only manage third quickest up to that point as Phil Keen took provisional pole with a 2:05.977.

The two Barwell Motorsport Lamborghinis clearly had the measure of the drying surface as provisional pole was swapped between the #78 and #72 cars. Sandy Mitchell was still on a flying lap as the chequered flag came out and re-took pole position on his final tour with a 2:04.303, the second pole position of the season for the #78 crew.

The 20-year-old Scottish driver was delighted to be starting from the front of the GT3 grid.

“Barwell were one-two in that session which was great,” said Mitchell. “I’m looking forward to starting from the front row for both races tomorrow. It looked like Rob was going to be on pole as well until he got held up in the final sector, which was unfortunate, as he had gone purple in the first two sectors. There’s a good chance it will be wet tomorrow which I think will suit us so we’re going to go for it!”

The first of the GT4 sessions saw the multiple track limit offences for the #97 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 driven by Daniel Vaughan. Vaughan managed to put in a 2:14.883 but not before the HHC Motorsport McLarens had locked out the front row of the GT4 grid for Race One, Jordan Collard securing pole position with a 2:13.611.

Matt Cowley waited until late in the second GT4 qualifying session before putting in a 2:13.108 on his third lap to take pole position for the second time in 2020 for the #61 car.

The lights go out for Race One, Round Seven of the 2020 Intelligent Money British GT Championship, at 10:15 on Sunday October 4.