Dawson and Jewiss claim regulation victory as Warren and Brown extend GT4 championship lead

Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss converted pole position into a second British GT victory of the season in Race 1 at Snetterton where Optimum’s Marc Warren and Jack Brown took another significant step towards winning this year’s GT4 crown.

The GT3 championship leaders made the most of Blackthorn’s compensation time to win comfortably by eight seconds from 2 Seas team-mates Kevin Tse and Maximilian Götz who beat Barwell’s Alex Martin and Sandy Mitchell to second overall.

Further back, Brown scored his fourth victory at Snetterton in as many years by leading home Mahiki’s Ginetta shared by Josh Miller and Jack Mitchell who beat Luca Hopkinson and Harry George to Silver spoils by just half a second.

Optimum’s Pro-Am duo received a further boost to their overall title ambitions when main rivals Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson (Century) lost second place to a drive-through penalty for track limits infringements.

GT3: 1-2 Seas in Snetterton opener 

After both cars starred in Qualifying, 2 Seas Motorsport put on a show in the opening race with its Mercedes-AMGs charging to a one-two finish as Dawson and Jewiss extended their points lead.

Dawson started on pole, got a great launch once the lights went out, defended from Petrobelli’s Aston Martin on the squeeze into the Wilson hairpin and then proceeded to check out. The #42 Mercedes-AMG was almost three seconds to the good by the time the pit window opened and he dived in to hand to Jewiss. However, the car’s margin was greatly extended with Blackthorn’s Aston having to serve the maximum Compensation Time following its victory last time out at Spa. 

When Jewiss rejoined, he found himself with an advantage of over 10 seconds back to Maximilian Götz in the sister car, which had run third through the first half in Kevin Tse’s hands and also jumped the Aston thanks to its shorter pit time.

That was the contest for the win down, as Jewiss managed the gap to take a second win of the season, and in doing so boosted the crew’s points advantage.

The win may have been a foregone conclusion, but second place wasn’t. Martin had moved Barwell’s lead Lamborghini up to fourth and chased Tse into the pits for the mandatory stops. Mitchell rejoined and chased down the #18 Mercedes-AMG, getting closest when Götz had to take to the grass to make his way past a GT4 car into Riches. However, the German defended hard to hold the runner-up spot to the flag.

Petrobelli and Adam were fourth and banked solid points in what would always be a tough race with the additional pit stop time, with Paddock Motorsport’s Mark Smith and Martin Plowman securing their best result of the season so far in fifth, finishing as the lead McLaren.

Nick Jones and Sven Müller were sixth in the Team Parker Racing Porsche, ahead of Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin’s Spirit of Race Ferrari and the second Barwell Lamborghini shared by Rob Collard and Hugo Cook. The #1 Huracan lost time when Collard ran straight on at Brundle and dropped back from an early third place, and Cook was later hit by the Orange Racing McLaren, an incident which earned Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton a 10-second penalty and left them 10th, a place behind Morgan Tillbrook/Marvin Kirchhöfer’s Optimum McLaren.

The Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX shared by Chun Cheong Ip and Jay Bridger took Silver-Am honours in 12th overall.

GT4: All 4s for Brown, Optimum and Warren

 Warren and Brown took a controlled victory in the first race of the weekend, their McLaren benefitting from the additional pit time of their rivals to hand Optimum a fourth GT4 win of the season, and Brown a fourth consecutive Snetterton victory.

Warren took the start from the outside of the front row, but a collision with the pole-sitting sister Artura of Luca Hopkinson delayed both Optimum cars and allowed the Mahiki Ginetta of Josh Miller to sneak into an early lead.

Miller led throughout the opening half, with Hopkinson giving chase and Warren settled into a secure third, safe in the knowledge both Silver entries ahead would have to spend an extra 14s stationary in the pits during their stops.

Warren pitted at the first opportunity to hand to Brown, with the Optimum team even having time to tape some loose bodywork – a legacy of the Turn 1 clash – before Brown filtered back out into a commanding lead.

Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson’s Century BMW initially inherited second, with Ramyead having held station inside the top five and jumped all the Silvers in the pit window. However, the #71 M4 was soon back into the pits to serve a drive-through for breaching track limits, which enlivened the fight for both second and the Silver win.

Miller handed the #84 Ginetta over to Mitchell and he rejoined with Harry George’s McLaren breathing down his neck, having relayed Hopkinson. George kept the pressure on and attempted a move around the outside of Williams late on, only for a lurid slide to cost him time and settle the fight in the Ginetta’s favour.

The penalised Robertson/Ramyead BMW was fourth, ahead of Joe Wheeler/Ian Duggan’s Mahiki Ginetta and the Team Parker Racing Mercedes-AMG of Jon Currie and Phil Keen, which the squad worked wonders to repair following its Qualifying accident yesterday.

Results are HERE