British GT: Al Harthy and Lind secure poles at Snetterton

After a delay of over an hour due to a serious fire in the paddock, qualifying for rounds five and six of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship at Snetterton got underway at 17:00 local time.

Weather had improved to the point that the track was fully dry and the sun was shining as the drivers went out for the first GT3 session to set the grid positions for Sunday August 8’s first one-hour contest.

Shamus Jennings was first out of the pits in the #33 G-Cat Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

After five minutes, three drivers had gone below 1:51 with Ahmad Al Harthy setting the quickest time with a 1:50.044 in the #97 Oman Racing with TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3, followed by Kelvin Fletcher in the #11 Paddock Motorsport Bentley Continental GT3 with a 1:50.690.

Al Harthy went quicker again and was the first driver into the 1:49s with a 1:49.237. Andrew Howard, who was provisionally on the front row, lost his lap time in the #7 Beechdean AMR Aston Martin and fell back to fifth.

As the first session drew to a close, Al Harthy retained his pole position to be joined by Kelvin Fletcher on the front row. Morgan Tillbrook set a 1:50.409 on his final lap to secure a second row start for the #77 Enduro Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 alongside Adam Balon in the #1 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini.

Phil Keen, at the wheel of the #18 WPI Motorsport Lamborghini, was first out of the pit lane for the second session but it was Marcus Clutton who got the ball rolling with 1:47.998 in the #77 Enduro Motorsport McLaren 720 GT3 before double Le Mans class winner Jonny Adam repeated the success of his teammate Ahmad Al Harthy by topping the timing screens with a 1:47.808 in the #7 Aston Martin.

Dennis Lind, however, was on a charge and bettered Adam’s time with a 1:47.652 in the championship-leading #63 Barwell Lamborghini. Yelmer Buurman then booked his slot on the front row by setting a 1:47.656 in the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

The #5 Balfe Motorsport McLaren did not set a time in the second session.

After five minutes of the first GT4 session, Alain Valente at the wheel of the #3 Tem Rocket RJN McLaren 570S GT4 had gone quickest with a 1:57.901, over half a second quicker than Will Moore in the #61 Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang.

Valente was on a charge, going quicker again and leading the GT4 times by nearly a second with less than three minutes remaining in the session.

Championship leader Will Burns moved up to a front row slot on the GT4 grid in the #57 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 with a 1:58.350 but was unable to close on the provisional pole sitter further.

Charlie Robertson found the pace in the #56 Assetto Motorsport Ginetta G56 to set a 1:57.256 and take provisional pole for Race Two. Robertson lapped by 1:57 by less than a tenth of second on his next lap, .420 seconds quicker than Darren Turner in the #27 Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin.

The top three in class for Race Two was completed by Jordan Collard in the #2 McLaren.

Race One, round five, gets underway at 10:10 on August 8 with the lights going out at 15:55 for Race Two.