British GT: Barwell quickest in FP2 at Donington Park, Toyota top in GT4

Reigning champion Sandy Mitchell set the fastest time of the weekend so far in FP2 ahead of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship‘s first qualifying session and race at Donington Park this season.

John Ferguson and Scott McKenna stole top spot in GT4 with an equally late lap on Saturday afternoon.

GT3

Marcus Clutton picked up where he left off in the early stages, setting a 1:27.394 to immediately beat his time earlier in the day.

Martin Plowman moved up 12 places to go fourth in the Paddock Motorsport Bentley Continental GT3, behind Michael Igoe and Lewis Proctor.

Championship leader Dennis Lind went eighth with the #63 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo‘s first timed lap, but at 4.9 seconds off Clutton, the Danish Lamborghini Squadra Corse driver’s time was anything but representative.

Andrew Howard moved the Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage into fourth place, but Clutton and Proctor seemed the only two to have set a serious time after 15 minutes.

Lind went 1.9 seconds behind as the Team Abba Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 left the pits..

The sole Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Yelmer Buurman left the pits shortly afterwards, with RAM Racing team-mates James Cottingham and Sam de Haan not competing at Donington this weekend.

The session was curtailed briefly for a red flag on 20 minutes, with Clutton on top by eight tenths. Richard Neary‘s tyre had exited stage left after the Fogarty Esses, before he parked on the right on the entry to the Melbourne Loop.

As the #8 Mercedes hadn’t completed a timed lap before its retirement, the Neary pairing finished the session behind the GT4s.

Sandy Mitchell jumped into the #1 Barwell Lamborghini in place of Adam Balon during the red flag period, and went up to second after the restart with a 1:27.561.

Tillbrook’s time was still good enough to top the standings after 35 minutes, as Ian Loggie improved to ninth in the RAM Racing Mercedes.

Andrew Howard leapfrogged Lind for fifth, going ahead by four tenths, while Lind’s Barwell team-mate Balon got back in the #1 car.

Loggie immediately got up to speed, going up to fourth, just over a second behind Tillbrook, who still had the Mitchell/Balon Lamborghini hot on his heels.

Phil Keen showed the re-discovered pace of the WPI Motorsport Lamborghini after its GT Cup win last weekend, overtaking Buurman to go fourth with less than 20 minutes remaining.

Yelmer Buurman responded by setting the fastest lap of the weekend so far, a 1:27.346, after setting fastest first and second sectors to go four hundredths clear of the Tillbrook/Clutton McLaren.

Scott Malvern also improved to seventh, going ahead of Dennis Lind and Martin Plowman in the Lamborghini and Bentley respectively.

Clutton bit back at Buurman again, though, finding a tenth to take top spot back from the Mercedes again.

Malvern fired the Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR to the top of the timesheets inside the last ten minutes, going six thousandths ahead of Clutton.

Sandy Mitchell found pace in the #1 car to go top by two thousandths in the dying seconds of the session, and ended FP2 on top, ahead of Malvern/Jones and Clutton/Tillbrook.

Yelmer Buurman/Ian Loggie and Jonny Adam/Andrew Howard rounded out the top five.

GT4

Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke and Chris Salkeld were sat in the Century Motorsport garage for the first ten minutes of the session, the #9 car having overtaken the Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin on the way back to the pits during the red flag period in FP1.

The Steller Motorsport Audi R8 GT4 of Sennan Fielding was one of the last out of the pitlane as it was in FP1, as Michael Benyahia set the fastest GT4 time for Jenson Team Rocket RJN early on.

Darren Burke shot up ten positions to top the GT4 standings after 15 minutes for Newbridge Motorsport, ahead of the three RJN McLarens of Benyahia/Alain Valente, James Kell/Jordan Collard and Harry Hayek/Katie Milner.

Everyone held station in the standings until after the red flag, with the #90 Balfe Motorsport McLaren 570S GT4 one of the last to leave the pits.

Harry Hayek overtook his RJN team-mate James Kell in one of the McLaren Young Driver Development Programme entries to go 12th overall, and fourth in GT4, after 35 minutes.

Katie Milner went top with a 1:36.257 with 15 minutes left, before being usurped by team-mate Benyahia.

Gordon-Colebrooke worked to make up for lost time at the beginning of the session by going third in GT4 with a 1:36.323, behind Valente and Hayek in the RJN McLarens.

John Ferguson/Scott McKenna went top in the dying minutes, ahead of Alain Valente/Michael Benyahia and Harry Hayek/Katie Milner.

2021 Donington Park Free Practice 2 Results:

Pos	No.	Name	Team	Car	Time/Gap
1	1	Mitchell/Balon	Barwell Motorsport	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo	1:27.220
2	66	Malvern/Jones	Team Parker Racing	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	+0.019
3	77	Clutton/Tillbrook	Enduro Motorsport	McLaren 720S GT3	+0.025
4	6	Buurman/Loggie	RAM Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	+0.126
5	7	Adam/Howard	Beechdean AMR	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	+0.535
6	18	Keen/Igoe	WPI Motorsport	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo	+0.994
7	5	S/L Proctor	Balfe Motorsport	McLaren 720S GT3	+1.018
8	11	Plowman/Fletcher	Paddock Motorsport	Bentley Continental GT3	+1.116
9	63	Lind/Machitski	Barwell Motorsport	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo	+2.125
10	15	McKenna/Ferguson	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota GR Supra GT4	+8.398
11	3	Valente/Benyahia	Jenson Team Rocket RJN	McLaren 570S GT4	+8.931
12	4	Hayek/Milner	Jenson Team Rocket RJN	McLaren 570S GT4	+8.940
13	9	Gordon-Colebrooke/Salkeld	Century Motorsport	BMW M4 GT4 Evo	+9.103
14	27	Topham/Burke	Newbridge Motorsport	Aston Martin Vantage GT4	+9.133
15	40	Stanley/Halstead	Fox Motorsport	McLaren 570S GT4	+9.231
16	56	Sansom/Robertson	Assetto Motorsport	Ginetta G56 GT4	+9.449
17	90	Marshall/Brown	Balfe Motorsport	McLaren 570S GT4	+9.494
18	61	Moore/Cowley	Academy Motorsport	Ford Mustang GT4	+9.509
19	2	Collard/Kell	Jenson Team Rocket RJN	McLaren 570S GT4	+9.632
20	57	Burton/Burns	Century Motorsport	BMW M4 GT4 Evo	+9.866
21	42	Williams/Fielding	Steller Motorsport	Audi R8 GT4	+10.000
22	25	Whitmore/Giddings	Ciceley Motorsport by Car Gods	Mercedes-AMG GT4	+11.500
23	8	S/R Neary	Team Abba Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3	No time set