Richard and Sam Neary came through a dramatic third round of the British GT Championship – exclusively equipped with Pirelli tyres – to claim their maiden victory at Donington Park.
The two-hour endurance race was a Mercedes dream as Yelmer Buurman and Ian Loggie finished second to the Neary father and son combination as the title-leading Lamborghini Huracán of Leo Machitski and Dennis Lind were forced out on the opening lap through contact.
Up next for the championship is the away trip to Spa-Francorchamps on the weekend of 24-25th July, which again acts as the curtain-raiser to the iconic Spa 24 Hours.
The tyres
After making his debut last year, the GT3 competitors will again use Pirelli’s P Zero DHE tyre: an evolution of the previous DHD2, with modifications designed to make it even more versatile for the wide variety of GT3 cars and drivers that use it.
The P Zero DHB will again equip the GT4 class cars this year, having replaced the outgoing DH at the start of 2020.
The Cinturato WH tyres remain in place 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.
Race: GT3
The field barely made it through the first corner at Redgate before the drama started as the WPI Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán of Michael Igoe was spun around by the Porsche of Nick Jones, and then being hit hard by the Barwell Motorsport Huracán of Leo Machitski. Coming through the melee was Richard Neary who jumped from 10th to run second early on, while Sam Neary emerged from the pit-stop phases heading into the final hour in the lead. The Mercedes came home some 15s clear of the pole-sitting Ram Racing brand colleague Buurman and Logie, with Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam completing the podium.
Race: GT4
Two safety car interventions inside the opening quarter made sure the GT4 field was bunched up when racing finally got going properly and it was Will Burns and Gus Burton who took the win in their Century Motorsport BMW, leading a one-two for the team as Chris Salkeld and Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke. Fox Motorsport’s Nick Halstead and Jamie Stanley finished third as just 12 cars finished the race overall.
Jonathan Wells, Pirelli UK motorsport manager: “Such was the action at the start, this wasn’t really a race where the tyres were put through any sort of punishment as it was quite a stop-start affair to begin with. We expected the GT3s to operate within the one hour of consecutive running before changing tyres at the pit-stops and that is what happened today, although the pace generated by some of the drivers out there on older tyres, particularly in the latter stages of the race, was impressive. Ambient and track temperatures (between 26 and 31 degrees for the latter) were relatively low for this time of year, which allowed a lot of the cars to not only produce fast lap-times but also to conserve their tyres more and push harder in their stints. This race just goes to show that our Pirelli P Zero DHE really does allow the drivers to push to the maximum and ensure that everyone watching is treated to an entertaining race.”