Dawson/Jewiss close to British GT title after Brands Hatch victory

Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss edged closer to their maiden British GT title after the 2 Seas Mercedes pair won 2025’s two-hour penultimate round at Brands Hatch. 

They fended off the Optimum McLaren of Morgan Tillbrook/Marvin Kirchhofer for their third win of the season, while Rob Collard/Hugo Cook (Barwell Lamborghini) completed the podium.

It means Dawson/Jewiss lead the championship by 28.5 points (37.5 left available) over Giacomo Petrobelli/Jonny Adam (Blackthorn Aston Martin) and Tillbrook/Kirchhofer, who are tied in second. 

“Over the moon,” said Dawson, who made the step up from GT4 to GT3 this year. “I’d like to say I won the race at the start.”

That he did, Jewiss also agreeing with the notion, after a disappointing Q2 left the #18 Mercedes sixth on the grid. On pole was the sister 2 Seas (Kevin Tse/Maximilian Gotz) with Blackthorn in second. That was a bitter pill for the championship leaders, who led those two cars by only eight and nine points respectively at the start of the weekend. 

So the title fight dominated discussions and Dawson, who has been faultless all year, set the comeback in motion on lap one.

He climbed from sixth to fourth in the opening corners, but there was also change at the front as Petrobelli overtook Tse around the outside of Paddock Hill. At the following corner, Tse then lost second to Collard, who had already jumped ahead of team-mate Alex Martin into third.

But lap one ended under safety car conditions due to a hitting the barrier at the exit of Druids.

When racing resumed 13 minutes into the contest, reader Petrobelli handled the restart perfectly but moments later he received a drivethrough penalty because a team mechanic illegally put a fan under the Vantage on the pre-race grid. 

Adam called it a “lapse in concentration”, but it hurt massively as Petrobelli rejoined in last with Collard now leading ahead of Tse, Dawson, Martin and fifth-placed Tillbrook.

Green flag conditions only lasted for six minutes due to a smoky GT4 stopping at the side of Dingle Dell, prompting a full-course yellow until the 37th minute. 

The frontrunners maintained position in the laps which followed, but further back, Petrobelli was on a mission after the title hopeful became “very angry” from what he thought was a “stupid mistake”. 

Petrobelli was angered by the mistake, which has made a title victory unlikely for Blackthorn

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

His pace was sublime and alongside setting the then-fastest lap of the race, Petrobelli stormed from 12th to sixth before the hour mark. 

But, with the pit window now arriving, this was the crucial part of the race due to success penalties for the top three finishes from last time out at Snetterton. 

Tse/Gotz had to pit for an extra 20s, 15s for Martin/Patrick Kujala and 10s for Collard/Hugo Cook. So the #18 Mercedes was sitting pretty in third, set to take the race lead making Dawson’s lap one ever more important. 

That’s how it transpired with Jewiss starting his stint in front of second-placed Kirchhofer, while the #1 Lamborghini at the hands of Cook was now third with Adam in fourth. The other Barwell Huracan had dropped to eighth, while Gotz was 11th after he and Tse opted for a strategy which confused many at the time. 

Their attempt to negate the 20s penalty was made harder by the various yellow flag periods, so they decided to run Tse longer than others in the hope of catching another precautionary period. But that never happened and with the bronze-graded Tse now competing against professionals, the #18 Mercedes began losing heaps of time which effectively dropped it out of title contention. 

Those still in title contention remained at the front, but with minimal wheel-to-wheel action, the final stint failed to properly kick into life until 28 minutes remained.

A late safety car promised to spice up the action

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

That’s because Sven Muller (in for Nick Jones at Team Parker Porsche) tried to overtake Martin Plowman (Mark Smith’s co-driver) for fifth at Surtees, but collided with the side of the Paddock McLaren as he did. 

It sent Plowman into a spin before getting going again, while the damaged Porsche went straight into the gravel at the following corner, thus ending Team Parker’s race. The incident also caused a puncture on Kujala’s Lamborghini after he ran over debris, forcing Barwell into an extra pitstop. 

That all caused a full-course yellow turned safety car with green conditions not returning until 10 minutes remained, by which point eyes were now firmly on the tense battle for race lead. 

Jewiss had Kirchhofer on his rear bumper, Dawson was captured looking nervously in his team garage, but 2 Seas benefitted from the tight and twisty nature of Brands Hatch.

“Unfortunately this is a problem with GT3 racing,” said 23-year-old rookie Jewiss, who was therefore confident of keeping the McLaren at bay. “You can have someone who’s so much faster, you get within six, seven tenths, and you can’t do anything. So we had that element of it.”

Jewiss was right as he held on to cross the line 0.499s ahead of Kirchhofer for the first Mercedes win at Brands Hatch in British GT.

Cook was a further 0.829s behind, while 8.850s down the road was fourth-placed Adam, who claimed “it was like ice” after the final safety car period due to low tyre pressure. Gotz, meanwhile, recovered to seventh, leaving the #18 Mercedes fourth in the championship and 36.5 points behind its 2 Seas stablemate. 

“It’s fallen our way very nicely,” said Dawson of the championship, with a near-on miracle needed to prevent them from clinching the title at the Donington Park finale on 4-5 October. 

Crash turns British GT4 title fight on its head

Harry George and Luca Hopkinson claimed their maiden win in British GT4

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Harry George and Luca Hopkinson claimed their maiden win in British GT4 while the title fight changed completely at the two-hour penultimate round in Brands Hatch.

The Optimum McLaren duo beat second-placed Ravi Ramyead/Charlie Robertson (Century BMW), while Jon Currie/Phil Keen (Team Parker Mercedes) finished third for their first podium of 2025.

It means the Century pair have moved top of the championship by 3.5 points over erstwhile leaders Marc Warren/Jack Brown after the #90 Optimum McLaren crashed out on lap one. 

“Feels like a long time coming,” said George. “What a weekend, near enough a dream race. Car was faultless, team was faultless and can’t thank Optimum enough. Just so happy.”

It was the first time this year that a GT4 race has not been won by either the #71 BMW or #90 Artura, two entries which dominated headlines coming into Brands Hatch. That’s because Warren/Brown would have clinched the title had they outscored Ramyead/Robertson by 14 or more points, but the results of qualifying made that pursuit unlikely. 

Josh Miller/Jack Mitchell (Mahiki Ginetta) pipped George/Hopkinson to pole, while Ramyead/Robertson led Warren/Brown on the second row. It was a clean getaway for the top two, but the title contenders collided at the exit of Druids; Ramyead had a slide and slightly nudged the McLaren, causing Warren to go off and into the barrier. 

A lap one collision has completely changed the GT4 title picture

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

There were differing views from all sides on the incident, as Brown said “Ravi was too eager”, Optimum boss Shaun Goff labelled it a “racing incident” and Robertson claimed Warren took risk in going around the outside of Turn 2. 

It nevertheless caused a safety car, which returned to the pitlane in the 13th minute, but seven minutes later yellow flags were out again due to the polesitting Ginetta catching flames. That continued a series of heartbreak for Mahiki, particularly Miller who has five poles in 2025 alongside either Aiden Neate or Mitchell, but is yet to win due to various mechanical problems. 

The incident handed George the lead and he comfortably gained control, as second-placed Ramyead was instead defending from Luke Garlick (Mahiki Ginetta) behind. Garlick eventually made his overtake in the 40th minute down the inside of Graham Hill Bend, but his joy was short-lived. That’s because the #69 Ginetta received a drive-through penalty during the final stint as it wasn’t stationary while being refuelled during its pitstop.

That lifted the Century BMW back into second, but it struggled to challenge the race-leading Optimum as Hopkinson comfortably sealed the job by 3.789s. A further 2.091s behind was British GT legend Keen, while Garlick and his co-driver Blake Angliss eventually settled for fourth ahead of the Donington Park finale on 4-5 October.

“It was obviously a good day,” said Robertson. “We’re now back in the hunt, so it just shows you can never, ever predict what’s going to happen.”