Parfitt Jnr/Morris seal third British GT pole as Haggerty/Mitchell make GT4 history at Silverstone
The Team Parker run Bentley of Rick Parfitt Junior and Seb Morris has narrowly taken its third pole of the season from Barwell’s Lamborghini Hurracan driven by Liam Griffin and Alexander Sims. The margin was just 0.071 secnds. The GT4 battle was won by the Mclaren 570S GT4 of Ciaran Haggerty and Sandy Mitchell, making history as the first ever GT4 pole for a Mclaren.
With a fifty one car entry, the British GT field is the biggest we’ve seen this weekend as the championship has its annual three hour race at Silverstone. Despite the large field, the battle for pole was always between the Bentley and the Lamborghini. Parfitt Jr and Griffin were out first in the Amateur session and swapped fastest times before Parfitt Jr came out on top with a time 0.052 seconds faster than Liam Griffin.
Alexander Sims then needed to be at least half a tenth quicker in the Pro session to have a chance of pole, quicker still if Morris was quick as well. Sims initially did it but inevitably Morris was quicker still and his lap of 2:00.082 meant that the Bentley duo had the pole.
Morris was pleased to have done it;
“Team Parker have done an amazing job to turn our fortunes around because, if I’m honest, we weren’t in a good place during Friday’s test. But the changes we made have really worked. The Bentley’s not been as strong in other championships this year so it’s great that our teamwork has helped bring it along in British GT. Qualifying wasn’t perfect; I didn’t bring in the front tyres as much as I could so struggled through sector one before hooking it up over the second half. It was the other way around on the second lap so, somewhere in between, there’s a perfect time! Fortunately the second run was just good enough for pole.”
Alexander Sims wasn’t too disappointed as he thought he’d maxed out everywhere;
“There wasn’t a huge difference between my first and second laps so I couldn’t have found much more time. I was quite happy, to be honest! You couldn’t find two more different cars than the BMW M6 I’ve driven for most of this year and the Lamborghini here; they’re different philosophies and you make the lap time in different ways. So it’s interesting comparing the two but, in the end, it’s actually not too difficult swapping between them. Traffic will be crucial tomorrow. That’s where the race will be won and lost rather than the success penalties other cars are carrying.”
But things won’t be so straight forward for the Team Parker boys over the Barwell duo in the race as the Bentley has a 20 second pitstop success penalty for its win last time out.
Behind the front row duo comes the TF Sport Aston with Jonny Adam boosting them to third from the fifth place that they held after the Amateur session with Derek Johnston at the wheel. Ross Gunn did a similar job for the Beechdean team jumping to fourth from the seventh place that Andrew Howard had managed in the Aston Martin.
The Ecurie Ecosse Mclaren GT3 is next up with Alasdair McCaig and Rob Bell and they have a second Team Parker Bentley alongside them driven by Ian Loggie and Callum Macleod.
Seventh is the AMD Tuning BMW Z4 of Lee Mowle and Joe Osbourne, they will be hoping to spring another surprise after taking second in race one at Oulton.
Marco Attard returns to the championship this weekend in a new car with a new team. He and new team mate Adam Carroll (Who had been with Barwell) are in an FF Corse Ferrari 488 and they take eighth.
The TF Sport Aston Martin of Mark Farmer and Jon Barnes is ninth with the Demon Tweeks Lamborghini completing the top ten. Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen were surprised to have dropped to the bottom of the top ten after taking a pole and a third for Oulton Park’s two races.
In GT4, the European championship cars have joined the field for this weekend and it was thought that one of these may challenge for pole but in the end it was all about the Ecurie Ecosse Mclaren of Mitchell and Haggerty who were clearly in front in both the amateur and Professional sessions. They were the only drivers to set a lap under 2:13 and their nearest rivals, the Beechdean junior Aston need to find half a second in the Pro session to beat them. But with the McLaren again fastest, Jordan Albert and Jack Bartholomew had to settle for second on the GT4 grid.
Sandy Mitchell also becomes the youngest ever British GT pole holder at sixteen years and one hundred days!
“I managed to get a clear track, which wasn’t easy with so many cars, and then just focused on putting the sectors together. Fortunately I hooked them up and got a lap time out of it! The 570S certainly seems better suited to Silverstone than somewhere like Oulton but we’ve actually had decent pace all year. We’ve just been missing that crucial piece of luck. So far so good this weekend.” Said Mitchell afterwards.
Haggerty was equally happy and confident;
“We needed everything to come together and that’s so far been the case this weekend. We’ve unlocked some performance over the past couple of weekends so the car’s been getting better and better and we’ve also got on top of what it’s capable of. It’s a combination of everything, really. Our pace on used tyres over a long run looks good so we’re feeling confident.”
Jordan Albert wanted to make up for a difficult previous round;
“Oulton wasn’t the best of weekends for us so we had to make the most of our chance here, especially as the Aston is so strong in a straight line. We found a good balance in practice and thought we’d be near the front in qualifying, which is exactly where we ended up! The McLaren’s one-lap pace looks really quick but over a stint we’re feeling confident. Half the battle tomorrow will be getting to the finish. Such a big grid makes it that bit trickier so consistency will be key.”
In third is a returning driver and team as Academy Motorsport have entered one of their GT4 Aston Martins for regular driver Dennis Strandberg who is joined by Matt Nicoll-Jones.
Alex Reed and Joey Foster’s Lanan Racing Ginetta G55 starts fourth ahead of the Generation AMR Macmillan Racing Aston Martin driven by Matty Graham and Jack Mitchell which had lead first practice. Championship leaders Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson were disappointed to only make sixth on the grid as they try to win their fourth British GT race of the season.
The first of the GT4 European Series entries; Ricardo van der Ende and Bernard van Oranje’s Ekris BMW M4 was in seventh ahead of the Spectacular V8 racing international run Chevrolet Camro in eighth with Duncan Huisman and Luc Braams at the wheel. Ninth was the Villorba Corsee Maserati of Luca Anselmi and Giorgio Sernagiotto. The second Ekris BMW M4 rounded out the top ten Simon Knap and Rob Severs driving that one.
Just missing out on the top ten was the GPRM Toyota of Stefan Hodgetts and Ollie Chadwick, brother of Jamie, despite stopping during the session.
Jamie herself is now missing the next few races before she returns to Beechdean to join up with tv star Paul Hollywood, teaching him how to drive at GT car quickly!
Abbie Eaton and Marcus Hoggarth were thirteenth overall and eighth of the UK cars in their Ebor GT Maserati.
Anna Waleswka and Nathan Freke were fifteenth in the Century Motorsport Ginetta, ninth in the UK GT4 class.
GPRM’s Toyota GT86 stopped out on track during the second session but still starts seventh of the British GT runners in 11th overall, one place ahead of Marcus Hoggarth and Abbie Eaton’s Ebor GT Maserati.
The returning Fox Motorsport team of Jamie Stanley and Paul Mcneilly ended up at the back of the grid after missing one of the sessions due to a break down.
Sunday’s three-hour, Five hundred Kilometre race gets underway at 12:50pm and is live on Motors TV. Tickets are available on the gate if you’d like to come with warm up at 9am and a pit walkabout at 12:05pm
Click here to see the full times from the GT sessions provided by TSL timing; By Marc Waller
