British GT: Collard And Mitchell On Pole At Silverstone

Rob Collard and Sandy Mitchell, currently second in the GT3 drivers championship standings and driving the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3, took pole for the Silverstone 500, the final round of the 2020 Intelligent Money British GT Championship, the #78 pairing lapping the 5.891 kms circuit in an aggregate time of 3:56.467.

Joining Collard and Mitchell on the front row of the 37-car grid will be the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Ian Loggie and Yelmer Buurman. Loggie and Buurman set an aggregate lap time of 3:57.040.

Completing the overall top three on the grid for Sunday November 8’s three-hour race was the championship-leading #69 RAM Racing Mercedes in which Sam De Haan and Patrick Kujala lapped in 3:57.236.

Pole position in the GTC class went to the #24 Simon Green Motorsport / Lucky Khera Ferrari F488 Challenge entry, Khera and teammate lee Frost setting a combined time of 4:06.619.

Jenson Button and Chris Buncombe’s #3 Jenson Team Rocket RJN McLaren 720S GT3 could only manage eighteenth on the grid, the ex-Formula 1 champion and teammate Buncombe struggling to get tyre temperature and suffering from a lack of testing.   

The ten-minute GT3 / GTC Am session got underway in dry but cool conditions with a track temperature of 10 degrees.

With 25 cars on track for the GT3 / GTC sessions, the circuit was busy and finding space to put in the perfect flying lap was always going to be difficult. Rob Collard in the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 set the early pace with a 1:59.232 on his second lap.

World’s Fastest Gamer James Baldwin went to the top of the timing screens with a 1:59.052 but Collard responded by going under 1:59 for the first time in the session with a 1:58.499.

As the chequered flag came out for the end of the session, Collard in the #78 Lamborghini was quickest with Baldwin second, having improved to a 1:58.773. Championship leader Sam De Haan in the #69 RAM Racing Lamborghini was seventh, having lapped the Silverstone GP circuit in 1:59.434.

Collard had made teammate Sandy Mitchell’s life a lot easier as the second session got underway, the young Scotsman putting in a 1:57.971 to put the #78 Lamborghini on provisional pole, .0783 seconds ahead of championship leader Patrick Kujala in the #69 Mercedes with less than four minutes remaining.

As the session drew to a close, the #78 Lamborghini was on pole position with a combined time of 3:56.467 with the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes of Ian Loggie and Yelmer Buurman completing the front row with a 3:57.040.

The GT4 Am session saw the #MSL Powered by Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 with James Dorlin at the wheel go quickest with a 2:10.7878, less than a tenth of a second ahead of James Kell in the #23     Speedworks Motorsport Toyota GR Supra GT4. TF Sport’s Daniel Vaughan was third quickest with a 2:10.960 in the #97 Aston Martin.

GT4 Pro/Am leader Mia Flewitt in the #21 Balfe Motorsport McLaren, was quickest of the four Pro Am entries with a 2:13.257.

With sun setting and the track temperature dropping to 8.5 degrees, the GT4 Pro session got underway with Jamie Caroline put the #97 Aston Martin on to provisional pole with a 2:10.026 with less than four minutes remaining.

Sam Smelt, at the wheel of the #23 Toyota, pushed to the very end of the ten-minute session and snatched pole position in the GT4 class with a 2:10.003 on his final lap, .144 seconds ahead of Caroline and Vaughan’s #97 Aston Martin on combined times.

The lights go out for the three-hour Silverstone 500, the final round of the 2020 Intelligent Money British GT Championship at 12:50 local time on Sunday November 8.