The Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Ben Barnicoat and Morgan Tillbrook topped the opening British GT Championship session of the weekend at Brands Hatch this morning (Saturday). Barnicoat’s best time of 1m23.924s, late in the session, was enough to take first by just 23 thousandths of a second.

Overall, it was a very close one-hour practice session, with the Century Motorsport BMW of Jonathan Beeson and Charles Clark second, with the Orange Racing by JMH McLaren of Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton a further thousandth back in third.

The fourth-placed car, the 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Kevin Tse and Chris Lulham, was a little further back, but still in touching distance at just over three tenths behind the pace setter. The top five was completed by Beechdean Motorsport’s Aston Martin of Ross Gunn and Andrew Howard.

A second Optimum entry, that of Callum Macleod and Mike Price was sixth, one spot ahead of championship leaders Rob Collard and Hugo Cook in their Lamborghini. The sister Barwell Motorsport Huracan GT3, piloted by Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski, was next. Todd Kingsford and Aaron Walker’s Mercedes-AMG was ninth, with the third Optimum GT3 McLaren completing the top 10 with Marc Warren and Jack Brown at the wheel.

British GT Championship, Free Practice, Brands Hatch

1. Tillbrook/Barnicoat, Optimum Motorsport, McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, 1m23.924s
2. Beeson/Clark, Century Motorsport, BMW M4 GT3 Evo, +0.023s
3. Orange/Clutton, Orange Racing by JMH, McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, +0.024s
4. Tse/Lulham, 2 Seas Motorsport, Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, +0.373s
5. Howard/Gunn, Beechdean Motorsport, Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo, +0.556s
6. Price/Macleod, Optimum Motorsport, McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, +0.559s
7. Collard/Cook, Barwell Motorsport, Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2, +0.570s
8. Martin/Waberski, Barwell Motorsport, Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2, +0.822s
9. Kingsford/Walker, 2 Seas Motorsport, Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, +0.830s
10. Warren/Brown, Optimum Motorsport, McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, +0.955s

Click here to view full times and results from the weekend.