British GT3 Donington - Abba takes its chance 16.10.2022: Intelligent Money British GT Championship Donington Park Saturday, October 15th 2022 A flurry of late flying laps – including Q2’s fastest – helped Sam Neary overcome Michael O’Brien on a damp but drying track and seal Abba’s maiden British G

Intelligent Money British GT Championship
Donington Park
Saturday, October 15th 2022





A flurry of late flying laps – including Q2’s fastest – helped Sam Neary overcome Michael O’Brien on a damp but drying track and seal Abba’s maiden British GT pole position.



The green Mercedes-AMG had already wrapped up pole on aggregated times thanks, in part, to Richard Neary turning Q1’s second fastest lap. But his son made doubly sure by setting a 1m37.059s on his final run to seal top spot by one second.



Earlier Neary Snr had, like seven others, banked a time just before rain swept across Donington and sent Paddock’s McLaren spinning into the Redgate gravel trap. The subsequent red flag prevented those completing their first flying laps from setting a dry time, which would later skew the averages.



GT3 debutant Darren Leung was fastest at that point in Century’s BMW, which headed into Q2 with a 0.2s head start over Neary, while Fox’s McLaren was also in contention thanks to Nick Halstead.



However, it was the Orange/JMH 720S – which set the fifth fastest Q1 time – that emerged as a serious pole contender thanks to O’Brien who began the session 0.9s adrift. His fastest individual time was enough to leave the guest entry out front on aggregate until Neary got to work.



Stanley also spent time atop Q2’s timesheets before Fox’s McLaren ended the session where it had started in third, while the combined efforts of Mark Smith and Martin Plowman initially left Paddock’s McLaren fourth. However, it will start 10 places further back after failing to set two timed laps over the first 10 minutes – a result of its early spin just as the track conditions rapidly changed from dry to wet.



Century’s BMW therefore completes row two after sub-optimal tyre pressures prevented Sims from contending for pole, while Greystone GT’s Stewart Proctor and Warren Hughes move up one place from sixth.



Paddock’s penalty leaves the best of the title contenders – Enduro’s McLaren – in eighth after Morgan Tillbrook failed to set a dry time, while Barwell’s gamble to fit slicks mid-way through Sandy Mitchell’s session didn’t have the desired effect. The Lamborghini lines up one place further back but also one spot ahead of RAM’s championship-leading Mercedes-AMG.





- Tom Hornsby, photo SRO