Saturday
The first session on Saturday, Free Practice, was characterised by the two accidents that severely limited running. Not much time had passed since the flags went green on this session for the first one to occur. Joe Wheeler lost control of his #88 Mahiki Racing Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo going through the Craner Curves. The car flew off through the gravel trap, and into the tyre barrier causing a red flag. This put the car out of action for the rest of Saturday.
After a prolonged red flag period to recover the car and rebuild the barrier, the session resumed with 20 minutes left on the clock. However, green flag running was again short lived, as there was soon a collision between two GT4 competitors at Redgate. Ravi Ramyead’s #71 Century Motorsport BMW and Rupert Williams’ #37 Jolt Racing McLaren collided going into the corner, and ended up beached in the gravel. Both cars suffered only minor damage, being able to return for Pre-Qualifying.
With more time needed to clear the cars than remained in the session, the decision was made that it be called early. Given no cars completed more than 13 laps, it was hard to draw any meaningful conclusions from this session. The #67 Orange Racing by JMH of Matt Topham & Marcus Clutton set the fastest lap in GT3, a 1:27.287, 3-tenths clear of their competition.
The McLaren 720S GT3 Evo is the fourth brand Topham has represented in as many British GT appearances. When asked, he assured me that not just the McLaren, but this specific car was the best GT3 he had ever driven. This was admittedly after some cajoling from his teammate and crew. Hopefully the journeyman will be able to find a more stable seat in 2026.
In terms of the troublemaking GT4s, Ed McDermott & Seb Morris’ #12 Team Parker Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 set a lap time of 1:35.534. That was just a nose ahead of those of their competition that made it to the end of the session. This was all the more impressive as the team had suffered a significant testing accident and had to rebuild their car during Friday.
Running was a little more orderly in Pre-Qualifying, but definitely wetter. Clouds had gathered between the two sessions and by the time the green flag waved, it was most definitely raining. This only added to the strong winds that gusted across the entire weekend. In early running the Platinum drivers ruled, showing why they are considered the best of the best. Maxi Götz, Marvin Kirchhöfer and Sandy Mitchell, all factory drivers for their respective brands (Mercedes-AMG, McLaren and Lamborghini) traded fastest laps in GT3 across the first half of the session. However, when the rain subsided, the track became safe for dry running for the last 15 minutes.
Lap times begin to drop rapidly the moment teams bolted on their slick, dry-weather tyres. In the end the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini of the aforementioned Mitchell and his teammate Alex Martin posted the fastest time of the session, a 1:32.403, far clear of the field. The GT4 field was a little less close, both to each other and to the gravel, than it had been last session. Harry George and Luca Hopkinson pushed their #17 Optimum Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 to a 1:38.893, nearly a second and a half than what anyone could answer them with.
Moving into qualifying with limited and varied running, there didn’t seem to be any obvious candidates for who was going to claim pole in either class. Qualifying in British GT is handled in a relatively distinct and interesting way. The two drivers of each car set a time in two separate 10-minute qualifying sessions. Each of their best times is then added together, and that is what determines their position on the grid.
In the first of the two sessions for GT3, designated for the amateur elements of the line-ups, there was accordingly a large field spread. Over 2 and a half seconds separated the field. Rob Collard of the #1 Barwell Lamborghini managed a 1:27.123 to set his teammate up with the best possible position going into his turn at the wheel.
GT3 Qualifying 2 saw the pros take their turn driving laps in anger. Another Barwell Lamborghini, this time the #78 of Sandy Mitchell won out in this session. He posted a 1:25.788 to try to overcome the 0.881 second deficit that Martin had left him to overcome. However, Collard’s teammate in the #1, Hugo Cook was only 0.671 seconds slower than Mitchell, so it retained its spot at the top.
The #1 would start from overall pole position on Sunday, with it’s teammate the #78 just behind it in second. Third place would be occupied by the #67 greatly helped by the adaptable Topham, and fourth would go to the championship-leading #42 which up to that point had been hovering in the mid-pack.
After GT3 Qualifying, unsurprisingly, came GT4 Qualifying. Since there is less of a clear Pro-Am split in GT4, the dynamic is very different between the two qualifying sessions. More jockeying for position than trying to make up for your teammate’s shortcomings.
The first session saw Luke Garlick catapult the #69 Mahiki Racing Ginetta into first place. A 1:33.961 putting him over 6 tenths ahead of the competition. His teammate Blake Angliss was able to build on this by only losing 3 thousandths to the phoenix #12 in the second session.
This put them decisively on pole for their class, alongside the #71 that had been able to recover from its earlier accident to put in two third-best performances that in the end equalled to more of a sum of their parts. The #12 rode their fastest time in the second session to 3rd, and the #17 was not quite able to match their performances in the earlier sessions, and wound up with 4th.
The weather forecast for Sunday looked to be a marked improvement, when viewed on Saturday night. The only two sessions were to be the 15-minute warm-up session and the main event, so everyone went home looking forward to the second day of the event proper.
Sunday
The forecast ended up being slightly misleading, as the weather on Sunday ended up being just as cold and windy, and only slightly less rainy that Saturday. The running kicked off with the warm-up session, which feels like a little bit of a blast from the past.
Formula 1 hasn’t had warm-ups since 2005, IMSA phased them out a couple of years ago, and I’m not aware of any Sportscar series that has them besides the amateur-aimed 24H Series. Even if this kind of running isn’t seen much any more, it does seem to be popular with the teams, with all cars setting a couple of timed flying laps.
Even if it isn’t at all representative of race-pace, for the record the #67 set the fastest lap of 1:26.812. The GT4 benchmark was set by the #90 Optimum Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 of Marc Warren and Jack Brown at 1:35.128.
With that out of the way, the only thing standing between the drivers and the race was the autograph session. The shortest queue of the whole affair was surprisingly for Maxi Götz and Kevin Tse of 2 Seas Motorsport. The reasons for this are twofold; one, that they were at the very far end of the paddock, and two, that the Anglo-Bahraini team had come quite unprepared. The series organisers had come with 1000 of the generic posters for the event, whilst 2 Seas packed only 100. This meant that they ran out in the first minutes of the 30 minutes allocated.
There are many highlights of this session, from the Caramel Wafers given out by the Tunnock's-sponsored #78 crew, to the keyrings, stickers and wristbands given out by all the Optimum teams who had truly thought of everything.
However, the award for best poster has to go to the #86 Bridger team, an A3 sized behemoth showcasing their Honda NSX GT3 Evo22. In the words of one of the team’s mechanics “We’ve got a beautiful car, shame it’s not very quick”.
The team has had a tough season in GT3 Silver-Am; winning all of the sprint rounds, but coming second in all the enduros. The two-car battle in the class between them and the #97 Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martin has never been quite within their reach.
[Since the end of the weekend, the team has posted their cars and race trailer for sale online, meaning they are unlikely to return next year. With Nova race also listing their Italian GT NSXs for sale, this probably spells the end of the car’s race history.]
Moving on to the main event, pole position at Donington is located on the right side of the track, giving the pole sitter the inside line into turn 1. However, given Redgate’s roughly 350 meter distance from the starting gantry, there was ample distance for the car in second place to get a run, and make a move, and this was especially true this weekend.
The strong east-west wind that had blown on Saturday continued with gusto into Sunday, it was likely the one thing off of the track that defined the weekend. The wind ran parallel to the circuit’s two main straights and blew opposite to the direction of traffic. Now, I do not claim to understand physics in any way, shape or form, but from what I understand, and could see this had a significant effect on the racing on display.
To put it simply, it increased the slipstream effect so that cars from further back on track could make gains, and attempt passes, on cars they other wise wouldn’t be able to. This manifested itself in a larger than usual number of overtakes at Redgate, the Melbourne Hairpin, and the Fogarty Esses, which are less esses in the traditional sense and more of a fast chicane.
The grid remained unchanged from the qualifying order with one exception. The #66 Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R carried with it a 3-place drop from the previous round at Brands Hatch. The car was deemed at fault for a collision that had ended its race, so the only way a penalty could be applied would be here.
The race got off to a relatively calm start in dry conditions, with looming clouds overhead. All of the cars blasted down the Wheatcroft straight and continued on without incident, with no noteworthy changes of position occurring within the opening laps.
The weather was a key player, with it raining on and off throughout the race. It never really chucked it down, but it was enough for the drivers to have to make liberal use of their windscreen wipers. From a spectator’s perspective, it was wet, but never quite enough to be bothersome.
Broadly speaking, it was a two-car race between the Barwell Lamborghinis. With the exception of the pit-stop phase around the mid-point of the race, the #1 and the #78 always occupied the top two positions.
The #1 started on pole, and was able to hold onto 1st through rain and (limited) shine. Rob Collard was even able to pull away from Alex Martin for a time, but the #78 was right back on his bumper by the time the two cars came into the pits at the end of lap 36.
The #1 had 10 seconds of compensation time to serve following the crew’s 3rd place finish at Brands. As a result of this, the #78 was able to leapfrog them, and Sandy Mitchell emerged onto the track in 1st with a sizeable buffer. He proceeded to set the fastest lap of the race, a 1:27.242, on lap 66 on his way to a decisive victory. The margin of victory in the end was over 30-seconds, a strong performance from the Lamborghini factory driver.
However, the stability that the Barwell entries enjoyed was not characteristic of the experience of the rest of the GT3 grid. Despite the relative chaos, the #42 2 Seas entry only needed to finish 8th to rule out anyone else’s chances of winning the overall championship.
Ultimately their position was never in much doubt, despite the drivers insistences to the contrary. However, Charles Dawson did do his best to give his team a heart attack during his time at the wheel. As means of a disclaimer, the water on track combined with the slick tyres the teams had started the race on did make conditions rather treacherous for everyone towards the end of the first stint. So this is no indictment of Dawson’s wheelmanship.
The first incident occurred when the #42 went side-by-side at the Old Hairpin with the #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo of Giacomo Petrobelli. Contact between the two cars resulted in a synchronised spinning routine. Both cars recovered well and were able to continue, this was later ruled a racing incident by the stewards.
It was only a few laps later that he was at it again, turning Morgan Tillbrook’s #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. Dawson was ruled at fault for this incident, earning himself a 10-second time penalty to be served at his pitstop. This was not the only incident involving the #77, but we’ll put a pin in that for now.
The 10 seconds was added to the 20 seconds the #42 already had to serve for winning at Brands, so the car had to spend a whopping 30 seconds more in the pits than its competitors. Once Kiern Jewiss took over the car, they had a much quieter time of things, and their additional half minute only put them behind their sister car, the #18, who rounded out the podium. Though visibly disappointed with the result, Götz said they had completed a “personal goal” by finishing in 3rd.
This sealed Dawson and Jewiss’ position as champions of the 2025 British GT Championship. If the championship situation was different, I’m sure Götz would have been willing to swap positions, given his disposition towards team orders in the past.
The guest entry of 2023 champion Darren Leung and Acura factory driver Nick Yelloly in the #22 Blackthorn Aston Martin rounded out the top 5 after an incident-free race. Leung has run a dual WEC-GT World Challenge Europe campaign this season, but has still found time for the championship where he first made his mark. He even won overall at the Silverstone round earlier this year.
The #97 came home in 6th and 1st in the Silver-Am division, winning a championship that it hypothetically could have lost, but never looked like being able to. Hopefully the secondary GT3 division will be a bit livelier next year.
The #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 296 GT3 of Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin was the biggest mover of the race, making up 7 places from 14th on the grid to finish 7th by the end of the race. It was also the last car to finish on the lead lap in GT3.
There were three cars this race that, in no uncertain terms, mucked up their strategy calls. The #7, #9, and the #67 all elected to stop early to switch to wet tyres. Then, when the track dried out later in the race, they were forced to swap back on to dry tyres. This extra stop compromised all of their races, and given they were sat 3rd, 4th, and 5th respectively before the stops, can go some way to explaining how the #42’s prolonged stop had such little effect.
Now, coming back to the #77, the car struck more trouble. 7 laps after the incident with the #42 dropped them from 4th to 7th place, Morgan Tillbrook was trying his best to recover lost time when he spun trying to lap the #17, a fellow Optimum car running in GT4.
The car rolled back into the gravel trap, and it quickly became clear that the car had become beached, with the rear wheels only serving to kick gravel into the marshals trying to recover it. After a while this became clear to Tillbrook too, and he assisted in recovering the car, which had to be towed off-track by a recovery vehicle.
The other GT3 retirement was the #66 Parker Porsche. The car pulled into the pits on lap 37 for reasons not made clear by the team. I was able to get a closer look at it after the race, and nothing seemed wrong, likely a mechanical failure.
The #90 Optimum McLaren of Marc Warren and Jack Brown went into the weekend trailing the #71 Century BMW of Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson by 5.5 points. This meant that they had to win to definitely come away champions, otherwise their destiny was at the hands of the #71 crew.
Despite the #71 initially holding a two-place advantage, the #90 was right on their rear bumper by the end of lap 4. The two cars continued in formation, with the exception of a brief interruption from the #69 Mahiki Ginetta which was able to overtake the both of them. The #90 was unable to pass until the pitstops came.
In another instance of compensation time playing a pivotal role, the #71 carried with it 15 seconds from a 2nd place finish at Brands. This meant that the #90 came out of the pits with a significant buffer, and from then on the championship was effectively decided. Having now taken over, Jack Brown was able to cruise to an definitive victory after the #69 had to pit for a puncture.
This crowned the #90 crew champions, and Brown the first repeat title-winner in British GT’s GT4 history. His 2024 teammate Zac Meakin has since gone on to run a McLaren 720S GT3 Evo in the International GT Open for Optimum. Dawson and Brown have now also claimed the single-season GT4 win record, notching up 5 wins out of the 9 they contested season.
The aforementioned #69 piloted by Luke Garlick and Blake Angliss came home in second, and first in the GT4 Silver category, having their breakthrough win denied by just over a second. Their fight back from a puncture was aided by an early safety car to repair a displaced tyre barrier, which kept them on the lead lap.
Champions in GT4 Silver, the #17 came home a lap behind them in 3rd. It was a double-championship for Optimum in GT4, with Harry George and Luca Hopkinson extending their 11-point lead by finishing ahead of their championship rivals. It would have finished even higher had it not been for having to serve maximum compensation time.
The #71 ended up in 4th after slipping back in the later stages, but Ramyead and Robertson were still able to come away with 2nd in the championship. There was a lot more spread in the GT4 field, presumably because of the larger skill gaps between the drivers.
The only car that was not classified was the #88 Mahiki Ginetta, which suffered drivetrain problems throughout the race. This was likely the aftereffects of the massive hit the car had taken the day before. It did see the chequered flag, but did not complete enough laps to place.
The weekend overall was a resounding success, with a noticeably large crowd. This stands on contrast with the SRO’s decision to downsize the British GT championship for 2026. Donington will now hold only one event, bringing the race count down to 6.
Though this is in line with most national GT championships, and its stated purpose was to reduce costs for teams, it is certainly a shame for the fans who have demonstrated willingness to turn out. This reduces the round count to the lowest ever, joint with the COVID season in 2020.
Hopefully this cost-saving measure will bring in a flood of new teams, and any concerns will become a distant memory. The 2026 season kicks off with the Silverstone 500 on the 26th of April, roughly 200 days from the time of writing.