MINSHAW/KEEN AND MOORE/NICOLL-JONES OVERCOME THE ELEMENTS TO CLAIM BRANDS HATCH POLES

Minshaw/Keen and Moore/Nicoll-Jones overcome the elements to claim Brands Hatch poles

Barwell Motorsport’s Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen mastered wet conditions at Brands Hatch earlier today to claim pole position for tomorrow’s penultimate round of this season’s British GT Championship. Elsewhere, Academy Motorsport’s decision to switch to slick tyres on a drying track helped Will Moore and Matt Nicoll-Jones secure top spot in a fiercely contested GT4 qualifying session.

Macmillan AMR’s James Littlejohn and Jack Mitchell line up on the overall front row after lapping a combined 2.7s slower than Minshaw and Keen, while Ciaran Haggerty and Sandy Mitchell’s Black Bull Garage 59 McLaren fell 0.132s shy of toppling Nicoll-Jones and Moore’s Aston Martin.

The heavy rain that fell just before this afternoon’s opening session ensured wet tyres were essential for both 10-minute segments.

Championship leader Minshaw, who could seal the title with a round to spare this weekend, was immense in the worst of the conditions as he continually thwart James Littlejohn’s attempts to claim provisional pole.

The Barwell Lamborghini improved on each of its first three laps before Littlejohn’s Macmillan AMR Aston Martin finally overhauled the Huracan. But Minshaw wasn’t finished and circulated quicker again on consecutive laps to establish a 0.718s advantage ahead of the GT3 Pro session.

Liam Griffin also improved late on to vault Barwell’s second Huracan up to third ahead of TF Sport’s Mark Farmer who initially looked like posing the biggest threat to Minshaw. Richard Neary put the Team ABBA with Rollcentre Racing Mercedes-AMG fifth, while Rick Parfitt Jnr – whose Bentley is notoriously tricky in the wet – finished sixth.