British GT: McKay heaps praise on Equipe Verschuur as the #10 McLaren takes GT4 pole, while late call-up Sanchez confident after RJN take GT3 pole

Daniel McKay says Equipe Verschuur have given him an easy car to drive after his #10 McLaren shared with Finlay Hutchison claimed GT4 pole by almost a second at Silverstone

The Scot was third fastest in the Gt4Pro qualifying after teammate Hutchison built a huge gap in Am qualifying.

“Finlay did a great job in qualifying in the first session and I did my best not to mess it up in the second session and we came from there with a really good gap.”

And he was full of praise for his one-car team, and hopes that the pole coupled with impressive pace at Snetterton is a sign of things to come.

“Equipe Verschuur are doing a really good job with the car, this year, I know everyone says that’s motorsport, we’ve been very unlucky for us. We got pole at the first one and had that taken away so it’s nice to keep this one and hopefully it’s converted into a win.

“The car’s been great all year if I’m honest, the McLaren they’ve presented us with is absolutely fantastic. It’s consistently quick, consistently a nice car to drive and Finlay and I are doing a good job too.”

McKay was keen to further make his point about his team, with the Belgian outfit considerably faster than their GT4 McLaren counterparts, but was keen not to put too much pressure ahead of the race tomorrow.

“I think we were the quickest McLaren at Snetterton by around half a second which is huge in any championship, I think today it was 0.6 seconds. You can only go as fast as the car and our team are doing a really good job with the car.

“I think you have to put expectations out of your mind otherwise you overthink it, start hearing noises that aren’t there. Ultimately it’s about taking it lap-by-lap and see where we are at the end.”

Meanwhile, RJN Motorsport took an unexpected pole position with Struan Moore and Ricardo Sanchez, who was a late call to replace Devon Modell for this weekend.

Sanchez revealed that he only received the call to step in last week to partner Moore, and was pleased with the early result.

“I’m quite happy, especially as it was a last minute invitation, I wasn’t supposed to be here.

“It was a good job, my lap wasn’t the best because we struggled with the cold tyres but I’m happy. I think it will be a hard day tomorrow for us, the car is hard on tyres so we want to keep it clean, nice and steady, no dramas or penalties or contact and after 3 hours we’ll see where we end up.”

As with McKay, Sanchez is confident of taking top honours for the British GT’s longest race.

“I would like to win the race, to be in the podium but it’s a tough race. There’s a lot of GT4 cars, traffic and you have to be really careful with track limits. There’s a lot of warnings and penalties. Expectation will be to win but if we don’t, get on the podium. It’s a strong line-up.

“Our average lap-times together are strong and if everything goes well, we have a chance. As I said to Struan and the team boss, we have to take it stint by stint.”

There are a few difference for Sanchez to get used to, especially as the team try and base a strategy around three pit-stops tomorrow afternoon.

“The biggest challenge is that each driver has to do two stints, and the tyres and fuel tank last an hour each so it’s a bit of a grey area there how we’re going to make the strategy. Everything has to line up.”

 

Featured Image: Nick Smith, The Image Team

 

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