Donington Park delivered Sandy Mitchell’s first pole position of the season and another decent British Championship points haul.
But the two-hour battle at Donington Park was dominated by a 38-minute safety car period which impacted the second-half of the race and the Forfar 23-year-old’s podium hopes.
“Overall, given the circumstances, it’s good to leave Donington with more championship points,” said the young Lamborghini factory driver.
Stunning qualifying
Mitchell and teammate Shaun Balfe matched the scorching Leicestershire weather during qualifying in their No. 78 Pro-Am Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2, prepared by Barwell Motorsport.
“Shaun delivered a stunning performance during his qualifying stint, topping the timesheets,” said Mitchell.
“When combined with my quali it meant we started the race from pole position,” said Mitchell.
“He made a brilliant start and comfortably led the race for the opening phase before dropping back a few places towards the end of his stint as he began to struggle with tyres and grip.”
But just as the driver changeover was about to happen the safety car was deployed following an incident which caused damage to a tyre wall.
Mitchell rejoined in ninth place having served his additional 15-second success penalty, a result of the duo’s second place finish last time out at Silverstone.
The green flag was set to drop when another incident extended the safety car’s presence.
“When the race finally restarted, there was only 24 minutes of the two hours to run,” he added.
Close action
“I managed to get the car up to seventh place, but given the short period of racing, allied to the fact all the Pro drivers are so close in performance – as are the GT3 cars – there was very little opportunity to make any more ground.”
Fellow Scot Jonny Adam and James Cottingham took full advantage of the mid-race drama to register their second win of the season and grab the championship lead in the 2Seas Mercedes.
Mitchell admitted: “Seventh wasn’t where we planned to finish.
“But under the circumstances I think everyone in the team achieved the best we could.
“We started from pole position, developed the car further in only our third race with the Evo2, and scored more championship points.
“Now we head to Snetterton for the next double-header in a few weeks.
“We’ve won there before, so it offers us a great platform to bag another podium, and hopefully our first win of the season.”
