Paradine duo, Darren Leung and Dan Harper, delivered a commanding performance to secure pole position for the British GT Championship’s blue-riband three-hour endurance race—picking up seamlessly from their triumph at Silverstone Circuit one year ago. Meanwhile, in GT4, Thomas Holland and Hadley Simpson made an immediate statement by topping qualifying on debut for Innovation Racing.
Last year’s winners remain unbeaten as a pairing in the 500 and head into race day as clear contenders for a historic third shared victory. Their BMW will launch from the front row alongside Optimum Motorsport’s Morgan Tillbrook and Ben Barnicoat, whose Q2 benchmark lap of 1m57.214s narrowed Paradine’s aggregate advantage to just 0.638 seconds.
Further back, Jarrod Waberski impressed with the second-fastest time in Q2, securing Silver-Am pole and fifth overall for the Barwell Lamborghini he shares with Alex Martin.
In GT4, Holland’s standout Q1 effort handed Innovation Racing’s Ginetta a commanding 0.9-second cushion. That margin proved crucial, as Jack Mitchell produced a blistering Q2 lap to reduce the deficit to a razor-thin 0.032 seconds. Despite the late pressure, the Toro Verde G56 of Luke Shaw and Mitchell emerged as the leading Pro-Am entry.
GT3: Paradine Targets Back-to-Back 500 Wins
Although competing as one-off entrants and therefore ineligible for points, Leung and Harper reinforced their pre-race credentials by achieving a milestone that had previously eluded them—even during their 2023 title-winning campaign: a pole position earned outright on pace.
Leung set the tone early, dominating the opening 10-minute session with consecutive fastest laps. Charles Dawson, the reigning champion, trimmed the gap late on but remained 0.8 seconds adrift. Rob Collard and Tillbrook followed approximately a second behind, while GT3 newcomer Marc Warren impressed in fifth—leading the Silver-Am contingent in Optimum’s second McLaren. Kevin Tse rounded out the top six for 2 Seas Motorsport.
Q2 delivered a far more competitive spectacle. Waberski briefly topped the timesheets before Barnicoat’s decisive lap reset the benchmark. Harper also flirted with the fastest time but ultimately settled for third—though the combined result remained firmly in Paradine’s favour.
Hugo Cook and Collard secured third overall in Barwell’s leading Lamborghini, lining up alongside Dawson and Kiern Jewiss. Behind them, Tse and Ben Green edged into fifth, with Martin and Waberski completing the top six. A trio of McLarens follows, while Beechdean AMR rounds out the top ten.
GT4: Innovation Leads Ginetta 1–2
Innovation Racing and Toro Verde locked out the front row for Ginetta, continuing the manufacturer’s late-season momentum from last year, when it claimed the final three GT4 poles of 2025.
Holland laid the foundation in Q1, delivering a lap 0.880 seconds clear of Josh Stanton in the Optimum McLaren, with Shaw close behind. That advantage proved just enough for Simpson to defend in Q2, despite sustained pressure from Mitchell, who significantly closed the gap.
In the end, Innovation held on by a mere three hundredths of a second—an emphatic debut result under intense scrutiny.
Behind them, Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins secured third in MK Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage, followed by Daniel Lavery and Darren Turner for Grange Racing. Stanton and Luca Hopkinson led the McLaren charge in fifth, with Branden Templeton and Jack Collins completing the top six for Century Motorsport’s BMW.
