2 Seas enjoys dream start to British GT in 2025 at Donington Park

British GT3 debutants Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss claimed an incredible victory from pole in the two-hour Donington Park race to kickstart the 2025 season. 

The 2 Seas Mercedes finished 1.1 seconds ahead of the Barwell Lamborghini after Jewiss withstood late pressure from Sandy Mitchell, who shared the Huracan with Alex Martin.

Kevin Tse and 2021 DTM champion Maximilian Gotz completed the podium in the sister 2 Seas Mercedes on a weekend where the Bahraini squad established itself as a firm favourite for 2025 success.

Although it was expected to be a frontrunner, pre-season talk focused on the established Tse/Gotz pairing considering that Dawson stepped up from GT4 – he finished third last year, while Jewiss had completed little racing since winning the Porsche Carrera Cup GB title in 2022.

Dawson therefore simply aimed for top five in qualifying, meaning the British GT paddock was shocked when the #42 Mercedes led a 2 Seas 1-2 by a whopping six tenths while Martin/Mitchell qualified third. 

The pace of the #42 Mercedes translated into the race, as Dawson gained a second on lap one while Martin overtook Tse on the inside of Redgate. 

That was the only overtake at the front early on though, as the sunny Donington contest was much different to the frantically wet Oulton Park round that opened last season.

But it was hard for wheel-to-wheel racing to occur when a faultless Dawson controlled the pace so well, having extended his comfortable lead to 3.5s after 25 minutes. 

The pace of the top three was just on another level, though there were incidents behind as Matt Topham aboard the #1 Barwell Lamborghini spun at Old Hairpin after 30 minutes.

Team boss Mark Lemmer claimed “the back went round on him” when Rob Collard’s substitute – the reigning champion skipping Donington for medical reasons – hit the throttle, but he remained 11th regardless. 

Another GT3 incident soon followed, this one impacting the wider picture, as fifth-placed Giacomo Petrobelli misjudged a gap while attempting to lap Ian Duggan’s Lotus GT4.

The Blackthorn Aston Martin went down the inside of Coppice, but hit the Emira’s rear-right causing both to spin – so a full-course yellow flag turned safety car occurred after 40 minutes.

Green-flag conditions were scheduled to return five minutes later but a mechanical failure on the #88 Lotus, which headed to the pits after the spin, caused it to stop in the gravel at pit exit.

The safety car therefore remained until minute 50 and Dawson managed the restart perfectly, as the frontrunners all maintained position while Blackthorn received a 10s stop/go penalty for the contact.

Petrobelli’s nightmare stint ended 13 minutes later as the pit window opened, and all GT3 cars except for the #1 Huracan undertook their driver change at the earliest opportunity. 

Topham pitted a lap later as Lemmer said “it’s always a risk double stacking the cars”, a tactic that worked as the Lamborghini gained one spot into seventh while Mitchell, now in the sister Huracan, set about closing a five-second gap to Jewiss. 

The Lamborghini factory star quickly plucked away and reduced the lead to 3.5s with 47 minutes left.

A charging Mitchell wasn’t able to stop 2 Seas making the early British GT waves

Photo by: JEP

A full-course yellow soon haltered his attack though, as marshals needed to repair tyre stack damage from an incident a few laps beforehand at The Esses chicane. 

Team Parker’s Nick Jones attempted to overtake eighth-placed Mike Price, but instead spun after his Porsche hit the Optimum McLaren. Race control delayed yellow flag conditions as the pit window was set to open.

The yellow flag was only brief as green running returned with 42 minutes remaining and Mitchell now trailed by less than a second because Jewiss got stuck in GT4 traffic. 

But Mitchell required a mistake from Jewiss as there are minimal overtaking spots at Donington, yet the 2018 British Formula 4 champion stayed firm.

He even extended his advantage to 1.6s with 16 minutes remaining, before Mitchell put it back to under a second in a real to-and-fro battle that caused tensions to escalate.

“I was a nervous wreck,” said Dawson, who was captured with his hands on his head during the latter stages.

Both teams could do nothing but watch the clock as Jewiss and Mitchell negated the last of the traffic.

Just the slightest mistake would have cost 2 Seas, yet Jewiss displayed immense resilience to claim victory without losing position.

“It’s the first race of the season, you don’t know how much you’ve got left at the end and it’s a lottery if you catch a GT4 in the right place, but we managed it really well,” said Jewiss. 

Gotz crossed the line 10s behind Mitchell, while Morgan Tillbrook/Marvin Kirchhofer (Optimum McLaren) and Richard/Sam Neary (Team Abba Mercedes) completed the top five.

A faultless Brown/Warren give Optimum the perfect start in GT4

Brown continued from where he left off in 2024 with another GT4 win

Photo by: JEP

Jack Brown got his British GT4 title defence off to the perfect start as he and his new Optimum co-driver Marc Warren won the 2025 opener at Donington Park. 

The McLaren drivers topped the two-hour race by 13.7 seconds from pole as Brown/Warren were faultless aboard the Artura while others needlessly faltered. 

Charlie Robertson and Ravi Ramyead finished second in the Century BMW, while Team Parker Mercedes pair Seb Morris and Ed McDermott completed the podium.

“It’s exactly where we needed to be,” said Brown, who has long been confident of another title fight, not least because of how well he feels Optimum operates compared to its rivals.

That was witnessed in qualifying, where Josh Miller/Aiden Neate (Mahiki Lotus) claimed provisional pole but were later disqualified after a communication error caused Mahiki to breach parc ferme conditions.

It gave Brown/Warren pole in an Optimum 1-2 and Warren achieved a clean getaway as the Artura of Harry George and Luca Hopkinson dropped to the back on lap one with a gearbox problem. 

Warren was therefore left with very few challengers and he took advantage of that by building a 7.6s lead over second-placed Ramyead in the first 20 minutes.

The Century driver was more focused on behind, as Neate continued his sublime pace from qualifying having climbed from second-to-last into third during the early stages.

Neate recovered from qualifying DSQ to storm into the lead before Silver crew success penalty hampered his bid

Photo by: JEP

He wasn’t finished either, as the former Alpine junior overtook Ramyead on the inside of The Esses chicane in the 30th minute with Warren 10s up the road.

But that gap soon vanished when safety car conditions arrived in the 37th minute, as GT3’s Giacomo Petrobelli had knocked Ian Duggan (Mahiki Lotus) off at Coppice.

Brown said it “took all the hard work away” and, despite managing the restart, Warren was eventually overtaken by Neate on the inside of Redgate after 55 minutes. 

It actually meant very little concerning the wider picture though, as the Silver FIA driver-graded pairings (like the #84 Lotus) must pit for an extra 24s than their Pro-Am counterparts (such as the #90 McLaren). 

When the driver changes occurred on the hour mark, Optimum was therefore back in the lead and, with little pressure from behind, a measured stint by Brown was enough for victory.

“It was half a job, essentially,” claimed the reigning champion, who is bidding to become the first driver with two GT4 titles. 

Robertson crossed the line 9.7s ahead of Morris, meaning Century’s 5s penalty for colliding into the Lotus under safety car conditions did not affect its finishing position.

Fourth place went to the second Team Parker entry of Jon Currie and Phil Keen, 1.8s behind the sister Mercedes, while Miller/Neate rounded out the top five.