British GT Silverstone Recap

The 23-26 April marked the official start of the 2026 British GT Season with the season opener at Silverstone, the home of British Motorsport.

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Test Session 1

The session started at 13:25 (BST) and some cars faced issues with their transponders not working - these being #6, #7, #21, #74, #84. The test session was red-flagged at 14:15 with about 8 minutes remaining and was not resumed. At the end of this session, it was the #63 car of Rob Collard that took the lead with a 1:58.658. Behind Collard was Martin - Car #78 (+0.622s), Cameron - Car #55 (+0.701s), Tillbrook - Car #77 (+0.890s). To round up the top five was Green - Car #18 (+1.030s)

Test Session 2

At the end of this session, it was the #63 car of Rob Collard that took the lead with a 1:58.658. Behind Collard was Martin - Car #78 (+0.622s), Cameron - Car #55 (+0.701s), Tillbrook - Car #77 (+0.890s). To round up the top five was Green - Car #18 (+1.030s)

Free Practice

The free practice session for British GT saw the #63 Barwell Motorsport (Rob Collard/Hugo Cook) set the fastest time of 1:57.908. It was the #18 2 Seas Motorsport (Kevin Tse/ Ben Green) car (+0.124s) and #1 2 Seas Motorsport (Charles Dawson/ Kiern Jewiss) cars that rounded out the top three.

Pre Qualifying

In pre-qualifying, we saw the #1 2 Seas Motorsport (Charles Dawson/ Kiern Jewiss) set the fastest time with a 1:58.851. It was the #63 Barwell Motorsport (Rob Collard/Hugo Cook) car (+0.037s) and the #15 2 Seas Motorsport (Andrew Gilbert/ Aaron Walker) car (+0.115s) that rounded out the top three for this session.

Qualifying 1 - GT3

In the first qualifying session for the GT3 cars, we saw the #91 Paradine Motorsport (Darren Leung/ Dan Harper) take pole. It was the #1 2 Seas Motorsport (Charles Dawson/ Kiern Jewiss) and #63 Barwell Motorsport (Rob Collard/Hugo Cook) that made up the rest of the top three.

Qualifying 1 - GT4

In the first qualifying session for the GT4 cars, we saw the #79 Innovation Racing (Thomas Holland/ Hadley Simpson) take pole. It was the #54 Optimum Motorsport (Josh Stanton/ Luca Hopkinson) and #42 Toro Verde GT (Luke Shaw/ Jack Mitchell) that made up the rest of the top three.

Qualifying 3 - GT3

In the second qualifying session for the GT3 cars, we saw the #77 Optimum Motorsport (Morgan Tillbrook/ Ben Barnicoat) take pole. It was the #78 Barwell Motorsport (Alex Martin/ Jarrod Waberski) and #91 Paradine Motorsport (Darren Leung/ Dan Harper) that made up the rest of the top three.

Qualifying 4 - GT4

In the second qualifying session for the GT4 cars, we saw the#42 Toro Verde GT (Luke Shaw/ Jack Mitchell) take pole. It was the #21 MK Racing (Jessica Hawkins/ Will Orton) and #97 GBR Stratton Motorsport (Josh Hartshorne/ Ronan Pearson) that made up the rest of the top three.

Warm-Up

In the British GT Warm-Up, the top 5 were as follows

1. #3 Optimum Motorsport - G. Patterson/ Y. Shanin

2. #78 Barwell Motorsport - J. Waberski/ A. Martin

3. #44 Century Motorsport - J. Beeson/ C. Clark

4. #15 2 Seas Motorsport - A. Gilbert/ A. Walker

5. #6 Paradine Motorsport - L. Loggie/ P. Keen

Race - Silverstone 500

Two minutes after the start of the race, the #18 2 Seas Motorsport car was in the gravel at Stowe Corner, a safety car was deployed following this. The #1 car of Dawson came down the pit lane six minutes in. The green flag was waved with 2 hours and 50 minutes to go. 30 minutes into the race, the #40 car of Townsend went into the gravel on the outside of Abbey. Following this, an FCY (Full Course Yellow) was in operation. 

This made for a good time for drivers to pit, although not better than pitting under a safety car, it can still come as an advantage to some drivers. The safety car got deployed with 2 hours 21 minutes remaining of the race. The safety car went back in 4 minutes. #97 has received a drive-through penalty for speeding under a FCY. The #1 car came back out, although it was 11 laps down and had a drive-through penalty to serve. Car #40 also received a drive-through penalty for speeding under the Full Course Yellow. 

The #63 car of Rob Collard and Hugo Cook started having smoke come out of the airbox, so they had to stop the car; it was another retirement during the Silverstone 500. Not long after this, another Full Course Yellow was put in operation, then the safety car got activated for 2 laps before racing action properly resumed, yet again after the green flags were waved. The #6, #61, and #97 cars received a drive-through penalty for speeding under the Full Course Yellow.

The results for the race were as follows:

Combined

1. #3 - Optimum Motorsport (Yasser Shahin/ Garnet Patterson)

2. #44 - Century Motorsport (Jonathon Beeson/ Charles Clark)

3. #91 - Paradine Motorsport (Darren Leung/ Dan Harper)

4. #78 - Barwell Motorsport (Alex Martin/ Jarrod Waberski)

5. #67 - Orange Racing (Simon Orange/ Marcus Clutton)

Article written by Ria Wiktor ©️ Ria Wiktor 2026