British GT

Griffin hopes First Practice session pace can carry through to race victories © Jakob Ebrey

MATT Griffin and Duncan Cameron topped the timing sheets in the first free practice session at Spa-Francorchamps in the British GT Championship with an impressive lap sixth tenths faster than the nearest challenger.

The MTECH Racing Ferrari 458 has been quick all season but mechanical problems have cost the team race wins but a best time of 2.23.070, some 1.6 seconds quicker than pole position last year has given the team hopes for the two Belgian races this weekend.

The new McLaren MP4-12C making its international racing debut at the hands of Chris Goodwin and Andrew Kirkaldy was the closest to the Ferrari clocking a time of 2.23.637 around the famous Spa circuit.

Griffin was pleased with the session and hopes that the team can build on the performance and push for podiums and ultimately a race win.

He added: “We are quicker than the McLaren, which is pleasing. The car is going well; in fact, it feels as if it is on rails around here, so things are looking good. But we always seem to start the weekends well, and there is a long way to go yet.”

The ever consistent Trackspeed came next in third and fourth with David Ashburn and Richard Westbrook clocking 2.24.283 in their Porsche ahead of Gregor Fisken and Tim Bridgman on 2.24.752.

There were dramas for the Preci-Spark Mercedes of David and Godfrey Jones and the Predator CCTV Ferrari of Phil Burton and Adam Wilcox. The Jones car spun at the top of Eau Rouge and couldn’t be restarted, missing the second half of the session, while Burton and Wilcox failed to set a representative time due to suspected clutch problems.

In GT4, the Peter Erceg/Chris Holmes Secure Racing/Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin led the way by more than a second from the Scuderia Vittoria Ginetta of Dan Denis and David McDonald.

Free Practice 1 Results

GT3

1  MTECH Ferrari  Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin (IRL)  2m 23.070s

2  McLaren GT McLaren MP4-12C  Chris Goodwin/Andrew Kirkaldy  2m 23.637s

3  Trackspeed Porsche  David Ashburn/Stephen Jelley  2m 24.283s

4  Trackspeed Porsche  Gregor Fisken/Tim Bridgman  2m 24.752s

5  United Autosports Audi  Mike Guasch (USA)/Matt Bell  2m 26.025s

6  CRS Racing Ferrari  Andrew Tate/Alex Mortimer  2m 26.228s

7  Rosso Verde Ferrari  Hector Lester/Allan Simonsen (DEN)  2m 26.378s

8  United Autosports Audi  John Bintcliffe/Jay Palmer  2m 26.524s

9  Preci-Spark Mercedes  David Jones/Godfrey Jones  2m 27.094s

10  Chad Racing Ferrari  Iain Dockerill/Tom Ferrier  2m 27.464s etc

GT3B

1  MTECH Ferrari  John Dhillon/Aaaron Scott  2m 31.759s

GT4

1  Barwell Aston Martin  Peter Erceg/Chris Holmes  2m 35.747s

2  Scuderia Vittoria Ginetta  Dan Denis/David McDonald  2m 36.904s

3  Lotus Sport UK Lotus  Ollie Jackson/Phil Glew  2m 37.247s etc