MOTORSPORT – BAHRAINI-British motor racing team 2 Seas Motorsport will have two cars in the front three rows for today’s Silverstone 500 – the season-opening round of the 2026 British GT Championship, taking place at Silverstone Circuit in the UK.
2 Seas’ pairing of Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss – the series’ GT3 drivers’ champions from last year who are making a one-off appearance this campaign over the weekend – secured fourth overall on the grid in their #1 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.
Teammates Kevin Tse and Ben Green followed one spot back in fifth, sharing the duties behind the wheel of their #18 contender.
Both crews are racing in the British GT’s Pro-Am class this meeting, which features a 29-car field, including 18 GT3 challengers and 11 in GT4.
Meanwhile, their teammates Aaron Walker and Andrew Gilbert, competing in the Silver-Am category, qualified 14th overall yesterday in their #15 Mercedes-AMG.
2 Seas’ three-car entry are headlining the curtain-raising event. Owned by Bahrain’s Shaikh Isa bin Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, 2 Seas are the reigning GT3 teams’ champions, and will be looking to retain the coveted crown.
Today’s Silverstone 500 is scheduled to flag off at 3pm, Bahrain time.
In yesterday’s combined GT3 qualifying timesheet, Dawson and Jewiss – who have graduated to the GT World Challenge Europe with 2 Seas for 2026 – posted a time of three minutes 57.660 seconds. They were 1.340 seconds slower than overall pole-sitters Darren Leung and Dan Harper of Paradine Motorsport, who had a combined mark of 3:56.320 in their #91 BMW M4 GT3 Evo.
Tse and Green had a best time of 3:57.823 – 1.503s from the leaders – while Walker and Gilbert posted a fastest combined time of 4:00.265 – 3.945s from Paradine.
Also set to start from the front row are Morgan Tillbrook and Ben Barnicoat of Optimum Motorsport, who qualified second overall 0.638s off the pace in their #77 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.
Right beside Dawson and Jewiss will be Barwell Motorsport’s Rob Collard and Hugo Cook, who finished 1.019s behind Paradine in their #63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2.
Joining Tse and Green on row three are Barwell’s #78 duo of Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski, who steered their Lamborghini Huracan to a best combined time that was 1.514s from GT3 qualifying’s best.
Prior to the start of today’s race, a 15-minute warm-up will be held starting at 11.40am.
Earlier yesterday during pre-qualifying runs, Dawson and Jewiss displayed their class by topping the timesheet with a quickest lap of 1:58.851. Walker and Gilbert impressed after being classified third just 0.115s adrift, while Tse and Green went 14th in the session 1.215s from their leading teammates.
The Silverstone 500 is the first of eight rounds on the British GT’s 2026 calendar. Rounds two and three are set for May 23 to 25 at Oulton Park, round four on June 20 and 21 at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, rounds five and six on August 15 and 16 at Snetterton Circuit, round seven on September 5 and 6 at Donington Park, and then round eight on September 26 and 27 at Brands Hatch.
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