(Photo: Paren Raval)
Euan Hankey, at the wheel of the #13 RACE LAB McLaren 720S GT3, was quickest in the second practice session for round four of the 2023 Intelligent Money British GT Championship. Hankey, teammate of Lucky Khera, lapped the 4.02 kms of the Donington Park GP circuit in 1:24.365. Second quickest in the interrupted 60-minute session, was the #97 Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 of Ross Gunn and team owner Andrew Howard, Gunn lapping in 1:24.388.
Third quickest overall was the #15 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by John Ferguson and, setting the time, Raffaele Marciello. The Swiss-Italian driver lapped in 1:24.501.
In the GT4 class, three manufacturers shared the top spots on the timing screens. The #29 RACE LAB McLaren Artura GT4, driven by Ian Gough and Tom Wrigley, was quickest with a 1:32.714, followed by the #56 Raceway Motorsport Ginetta G56 GT4 of Freddie Tomlinson, son of Ginetta owner Lawrence Tomlinson, and Stuart Middleton with a 1:32.986.
Completing the top three in class on the timing screens was the #23 R Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 of Josh Miller and Seb Hopkins.
Basking in warm sunshine, track temperatures had climbed above 18 degrees as the one-hour session got underway, resulting in slower lap times than had been seen in the earlier practice. The session was largely uneventful until the red flag came out after 25 minutes as a result of the #77 Enduro Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 driven by Morgan Tillbrook going off and making light contact with the barriers. Thankfully Tillbrook was unhurt and damage to the #77 car seemed to be light.
15 minutes elapsed before the session was resumed, the clock continuing to count down as this was practice. With 25 minutes left on the clock the cars returned to the track with Hankey back in the #13 car.
The drama was not over as the #8 Team Abba Racing Mercedes was shown the black flag for continued track limit offences before the session was neutralised for the second time, James Middleton having suffered a rotation in the #56 Ginetta, bringing out the red flag for the second time. With two minutes remaining, the session was not re-started.
The four 10-minute qualifying sessions get underway at 16:00 on Saturday May 27 with the lights going out for the two-hour race at 13:00 on Sunday May 28.
