Richard and Sam Neary will start their Team ABBA Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 from pole for the 2023 Intelligent Money British GT Championship Silverstone 500. The duo had an outside chance of taking the top spot on pure pace but their average from Free Practice 2 sealed the deal after qualifying for the blue riband event was abandoned this afternoon.
Heavy rain affected track action, with multiple safety cars and a red flag in the Ginetta Junior Championship race which immediately preceded qualifying. The disruption continued into the grid setting session for the headline event.
The first attempt at GT3 Am qualifying was red flagged following a coming together for the #27 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 EVO and the similarly equipped #84 Greystone GT round by round entry. The cars were quickly returned to the track and got back to the pits allowing the session to go green again.
Then came the problem for Andrew Howard, at the wheel of the Beechdean AMR Aston Martin V8 Vantage AMR GT3, who lost the back end of his car at Chapel Curve and t-boned the wall. The second red flag to recover the stricken GT3 machine was extended, then extended again while Race Director Peter Daley sought information on the state of the track.
In the end the race control team felt that it wouldn’t be safe to conduct qualifying and the session was abandoned.
As a result the grid is now set based on Free Practice 2 times. The fastest time from each driver in each car is added together to set the starting order.
In GT4 this is bad news for both the #14 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 and the #17 Enduro Motorsport McLaren Artura, neither of which set a flying lap in Free Practice 2. The Century machine opted to save tyres for qualifying while the Enduro machine was getting new engine after throwing a rod in FP1.
