British GT: Kirchhöfer and Tillbrook take pole with the fastest lap ever for British GT at Silverstone

Optimum Motorsports Marvin Kirchhöfer set a blistering lap in his part of Qualifying meaning that him and his teammate of Morgan Tillbrook take pole position for the Silverstone 500

The first part of qualifying saw the Aston Martin of Giacomo Petrobelli set the fastest time for the Amateur GT3 drivers as he beat rival Tillbrook by just over a tenth of a second. Behind them was 2 Seas Motorsport Kevin Tse who was only three and a half tenths of a second off the pace. The top 3 was certainly clear of the rest of the field as the rest of the drivers were 9 tenths of more adrift.

Barwell Motorsports would just top the one-off entry of the Paradine Motorsport BMW with the two separated by two thousandths. Kessell Racing would find themselves ahead of the reigning British GT champion Rob Collard who has returned after missing out at Donighton Park. Mark Smith and Simon Orange in both their McLaren’s would finish the session 8th and 9th ahead of last week’s race winner Charles Dawson meaning Kiern Jewiss would have a lot of work to do in his qualifying session where the Pro drivers are a lot closer.

The Pro driver qualifying was dominated by the blistering speed of Kirchhöfer who went a tenth quicker than Sandy Mitchell’s previous best back in 2022. This lap meant they finished the session 6 tenths clear on combined times as Maximillian Götz set a time fast enough to overcome the three tenth margin to the Blackthorn Aston Martin to just take second place by 4 thousandths of a second.

With the Blackthorn Aston Martin of Jonny Adam and Petrobelli secured in third after the first part of qualifying, it left the rest of the field to fight over fourth. Patrick Kujala and Alex Martin finished qualifying just ahead of Dan Harper and Darren Leung while Simon Orange and Mark Clutton was only a few hundredths behind. The championship leaders in Dawson and Kiern Jewiss only start in 7th place ahead of Hugo Cook and Collard with Rueda and Gilbert for Kessell Racing in 9th. Paddock Motorsports Martin Plowman and Smith would round out the top 10 on the grid.

GT4 would start off hot with Josh Miller taking a 1.3 second advantage in the opening stages of qualifying for Mahiki Racing ahead of fellow silver driver Harry George as well as Bronze driver Marc Warren in the Optimum Motorsport McLaren’s. Century Motorsport would finish the session 4th and 5th as Ravi Ramyead and Chris Salkeld would finish quite far clear of the rest of the field. The second of the Mahiki Racing cars driven by Ian Duggan and the Team Parker Racing Mercedes of Ed McDermott would set times with only 6 hundredths between them while Steven Lake in the third of the Lotus Emira’s would jump Jon Currie to 8th. Rob Boston Racing would round out the top 10 with Jamie Orton at the wheel.

The second half of the GT4 Qualifying would see Aiden Neate manage to maintain the gap to the rest of the field giving him and Miller pole position, this time not to be stripped away from them. Jack Brown would close the gap by a tenth but was not enough to come close to the silver pairing. Meanwhile Charlie Robertson would pull his BMW to third on the grid ahead of the Silver driver of Luca Robertson in the McLaren while Jack Mitchell would bring his Lotus and Lake to a top 5 starting position. Branden Templeton alongside Chris Salkeld would drop to 6th by the end of qualifying ahead of the two Team Parker Racing Mercedes of Phil Keen and Jon Currie as well as Seb Morris and Ed McDermott. Joe Wheeler and Ian Duggan will start 9th with Will Burns and Jamie Orton in 10th