Pirelli played a key role in the opening British GT Championship round at Brands Hatch, allowing WPI Motorsport Lamborghini pairing Michael Igoe and Phil Keen to take victory in the first two-hour endurance race of the season.
Exclusively equipped with Pirelli P Zero tyres, all 26 cars across the GT3 and GT4 classes had to manage variable track conditions throughout the race, with light rain affecting the early running, while three separate safety car interventions added an extra element to the opening race of the 2021 season.
The tyres
The GT3 competitors use Pirelli’s P Zero DHE tyre: an evolution of the previous DHD2, with modifications designed to make it even more versatile for a wide variety of GT3 cars and drivers. The P Zero DHB equips the GT4 class cars.
The Cinturato WH tyres are on call for wet weather. All the tyres have been designed to work with a variety of car set-ups and drivers, delivering maximum performance 100% of the time.
GT3
Having made a one-off appearance last year at the same circuit, the Beechdean AMR duo of Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam started from pole after topping Saturday’s combined qualifying session.
Howard was quickly overhauled by the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo of Michael Igoe on the third racing lap.
From then on, Igoe and team-mate Phil Keen maintained their lead either side of the mandatory pit-stop window to take the win.
GT4
Polesitters Gus Burton and Will Burns claimed the victory in GT4. Burns led off the start, with the crew eventually winning from their Century Motorsport BMW team mate Chris Salkeld. Completing the podium was the Team Rocket RJN McLaren 570S of Jordan Collard and James Kell.
Jonathan Wells, Pirelli UK motorsport manager: “While not the most demanding of circuits on tyres, the Brands Hatch GP layout and close competition across both GT3 and GT4 classes pose their own problems, particularly during a race of this distance. Conditions before the start of the race were a challenge for a lot of teams who needed to make a call on whether to use slicks or wets. Ultimately, the rain wasn’t heavy enough for wet tyres to be used, meaning slicks were the choice all-round. But that still presented a difficult opening few laps, particularly as the field was behind the safety car for some laps before the start. As we saw throughout last season, British GT has proven that it’s one of the most exciting and competitive GT championships in the world, and this weekend was no different. Even with a two-hour endurance race the action was close right until the very end. The Pirelli P Zero DHE for GT3 and DHB for GT4 tyres also displayed their class as a durable and high performance racing product for each category.”
