2Seas Mercedes wins at Donington

Text & Images: Ian Cutting

Victory for 2 Seas in the opening round of the 2025 British GT Championship while Optimum claimed GT4 honours.

GT3

Pole sitter Charles Dawson was able to convert the advantage to lead the pack into Redgate while Alex Martin passed the sister 2 Seas Mercedes of Kevin Tse into Turn 1. Daswon kept the gap back to the Lamborghini to around 4s during the first part of the race. This soon disappeared when a Full Course Yellow period ensued followed by the Safety Car.

GT3 winners #42 2seas Motorsport

The FCY was needed when Giacomo Petrobelli made contact with one of the Mahiki Lotus of Ian Duggan and the Aston Martin suffered front end damage while the Lotus retired.

Once racing resumed, Dawson did his best to build up the gap again before handing duties over to Kiern Jewiss. Sandy Mitchell was now tasked with trying to hunt down the Mercedes after taking over from Martin. Maximillian Gotz completed the top three in the sister 2 Seas Mercedes.

Mitchell had closed the gap to Jewiss before dropping back, but still within striking distance. That gap was soon within 1s with 10 minutes of the race left. This soon became 0.5s as they started the last lap but Jewiss withstood this pressure and took the chequered flag to claim their first British GT3 win. Gotz completed the podium 10s back to complete a 1-3 for 2 Seas.

Further back Simon Orange inherited P5 when Petrobelli spun when the contact whit the Lotus. Marcus Clutton took over still in P5 but a drive-through for speeding under the FCY dropped the Orange/JMH McLaren to P7. Post-race the McLaren was disqualified due to a parc ferme infringement, which the team are appealing.

The drive-through helped father/son duo of Richard and Sam Neary move into P5 in their Mercedes-AMG.

GT4

Inheriting pole, Marc Warren in the Optimum Motorsport McLaren lead the field from team mate Harry George. However George's McLaren developed gearbox issues on the opening lap and eventually retired the car. This then left Warren out on his own. He was able to build a healthy 10s lead of the rest of the pack before the FCY and subsequent Safety Car eroded all his hard work.

GT4 winner #90 Optimum Motorsport)

With Aiden Neate starting at the back of the pack due to being disqualified from qualifying he soon made his way through the field to be P5 by lap 3, P3 by lap 15 and P2 with a great move into the chicane on Ravi Ramyead's BMW just before the caution.

The Safety Car meant that Neate was now right on the boot-lid of the McLaren and when racing resumed he made his move going into Redgate. With an additional 24s to serve in the pit stop due to being a Silver pairing the lead would be going back to the Optimum McLaren.

As they both pitted at the same time, Jack Brown took over the leading McLaren and en-route to the win taking the fastest lap. Charlie Robertson stepped into the BMW from Ramyead to claim P2 even though they had a 5s post race penalty for causing a collision during the FCY. Completing the podium was the Team Parker duo of Ed McDermott and Seb Morris in their Mercedes-AMG, who also claimed the first ever Endurance Cup in British GT.

The next round of the Championship is at Silverstone for the blue ribband event, Silverstone 500 April 26/27.