SECOND ROW STARTS FOR GT4 EUROPEAN SERIES RACES

Day one of the GT4 European Series Northern Cup round at Brands Hatch proved to be a very satisfactory Saturday and saw Matty and his Equipe Verschuur team at the sharp end of the time sheets throughout practice and qualifying.

Joining the Dutch team as a substitute for regular driver Finlay Hutchinson alongside Hungarian racer Csaba Mor, the duo’s number 10 McLaren 570S GT4 was an ever present feature in the top five of the time sheets as its two drivers lapped at a quick and consistent pace.

Following some initial sighting laps from Matty, it was Mor who undertook most of the running for the day’s first hour of practice and turned in a number of impressive tours, the best of which, a 1:34.504 placed him in fifth.

Practice two saw Matty place the car two places higher in third, with a 1:34.250 that underlined the pace of the driver pairing.  It was all the more impressive thanks to a specific regulation relating to tyres in the championship.

In the GT4 European Series, teams are required to run the same set of tyres from their last race in the practice sessions of the following event.

With Brands Hatch the first event entered by the likes of Ginetta Cars and Tolman Motorsport, both of whom finished ahead of the Equipe Verschuur entry, it meant those rapid times were being set on rubber that was well passed its peak performance.

Come qualifying and a more level playing field in terms of the Pirelli boots placed onto the car, Matty and Mor were able to find further improvements, with the Hungarian’s lap of 1:33.879 putting him fifth on the grid for race one and Matty’s 1:32.859 fourth on the grid for race two.

A good session was improved further after the chequered flag after post session penalties elevated Matty and Mor to fourth on the race one grid.

Having posted his fastest ever lap around Brands Hatch’s 2.4 mile Grand Prix circuit in GT4 machinery, Graham declared himself happy with the day and hopeful of good races on Sunday.

He said: “We’ve had a really good day today, the car has felt good throughout, our pace has been quick and had it not been for the red flag during my qualifying session, I think we’d have had a front row start in race two.

“We’ve got good pace over out long runs and our times were consistent throughout today and I think we’re going to be in a good place.

“The big challenge tomorrow is going to be the Ginetta, it’s very quick around here but our long run performance gives me confidence we can fight with it in the race.  I hope that we can get behind it quite quickly and have a run and chase Charlie and Tom down.”

Sunday’s first one hour race at Brands Hatch is scheduled to take the green flag at 10:15, with the second at 14:25 and both available to watch live at www.gt4series.com/live