British GT - 2 Seas and Optimum seal Silverstone 500 pole positions

Kevin Tse’s dominant Q1 performance helped 2 Seas and Maximilian Goetz take overall pole position for the Silverstone 500, while Zac Meakin and last year’s class winner Jack Brown combined to give Optimum top spot in GT4.

Neither of the pole-winning cars set outright fastest times – those honours and new lap records went to Sandy Mitchell and Gordie Mutch – but their driver crews were still sufficiently quick to land premium grid slots for the British GT Championship’s blue riband, three-hour race.

Mitchell’s banzai lap of 1m56.602s reduced his own 2022 benchmark by just over a tenth and left the Barwell Lamborghini he shares with Alex Martin 0.135s shy of pole. Century’s 2023 500-winning BMW shared by Darren Leung and Dries Vanthoor starts third, while Shaun Balfe and Adam Smalley (Garage 59) were the leading Silver-Am contenders in fourth.

GT4 boiled down to a two-horse race between Optimum’s McLaren and CMR’s Ginetta but it was ultimately Brown and Meakin who prevailed after both narrowly beat Stuart Middleton and Freddie Tomlinson in their respective sessions. A combined 0.237s separated the crews after Q2.

The consistency of Forsetti’s Mikey Porter and Jamie Day was rewarded with third overall – three places ahead of their early title rivals and Pro-Am pole winners Charles Dawson and Seb Morris (Team Parker Racing).

However, GT4’s results remain subject to an investigation after several cars potentially breached fast lane rules.