Harper and Leung make history with victory in British GT’s crazy Silverstone 500

Dan Harper and Darren Leung entered an exclusive list of two-time Silverstone 500 victors having won the bonkers three-hour contest on the second weekend of the 2025 British GT season.

The Paradine BMW drivers have joined Sandy Mitchell (2020 and 2022) as the only racers to have won the event twice, after first triumphing during their 2023 title-winning campaign. 

Harper and Leung finished just half a second ahead of the #42 2 Seas Mercedes of Kiern Jewiss and Charles Dawson, while the #77 Optimum McLaren (Marvin Kirchhofer/Morgan Tillbrook) completed the GT3 podium. 

Considering all that can go wrong in what is always a dramatic contest, British GT’s blue-riband round has long been decided by factors other than outright pace. 

“It isn’t going to be a green [flag] race for three hours,” said Jonny Adam, after qualifying third for Blackthorn Aston Martin with co-driver Giacomo Petrobelli.  

Ahead of him was the polesitting #77 McLaren as a rapid Kirchhofer claimed the championship’s qualifying record at Silverstone (1m56.569s), while the #18 2 Seas Mercedes (Maximilian Gotz/Kevin Tse) completed the front row.

So, on pace alone, the eventual top-two finishers were not up there: the BMW qualified fifth with the #42 Mercedes in seventh, the latter racing with an extra 30kg after exceeding expectations of a Silver-Am pairing by dominating the Donington Park opener. 

But the Silverstone 500 is all about strategy and that is how the 2025 edition was won. It therefore didn’t hugely matter if Tillbrook enjoyed a faultless start or if Petrobelli and Alex Martin (Barwell Lamborghini) – who is actually understood to have been touch and go for the race after waking up with a bad stomach bug on Sunday – had an early to-and-fro for third, because the nature of this contest was dictated by the 41st minute full-course yellow flag. 

Mike Price in the #3 Optimum McLaren had spun off at Village, to the detriment of Blackthorn and the #18 Mercedes, which just pitted under green-flag running. These crews therefore tumbled down the order as the rest of the field made driver swaps during yellow conditions, before the subsequent safety car period that started in the 54th minute. 

Such long yellow-flag running is what inspired Paradine to attempt a different strategy as it pitted twice during said period. The #78 Lamborghini (Martin/Patrick Kujala) also did that, having made its second stop a lap after the BMW. 

“From the beginning, we were just on the lookout for driver reset strategies that got us off sync versus other people,” said Leung, who wanted to do two of the necessary three driver swaps at reduced speed while sticking to the maximum driver stint time of 65 minutes. 

Those cars were 11th (Paradine) and 14th (Barwell) for the hour-mark restart, as Kirchhofer led the way ahead of Hugo Cook in the sister Barwell Lamborghini. Pitting later during the yellow-flag period, meanwhile, helped the #42 Mercedes complete the top three.

But green running only returned for five minutes, as fifth-placed Matt Griffin (Spirit of Race Ferrari) was taken out by the Team Abba Mercedes of Sam Neary at Club. This prompted another FCY-turned-safety car that caused more driver changes, yet not everybody pitted as Neary led the 80th-minute restart ahead of Tom Wood (Beechdean Aston Martin) and Charles Bateman (Blackthorn Aston).

Many faces within the paddock were therefore confused by the differing strategies at play, but what mattered most is that the net lead now belonged to Paradine in fourth.

Multiple cautions, including for the Ferrari being fired off, created differing strategies

Photo by: JEP

And, within 20 minutes of the restart, net leader Leung was second on-track behind Wood after passing Bateman at The Loop while Neary came in to serve a 10s stop/go for the incident at Club.

Various penalties also dropped other cars out of contention, including both Barwell Lambos, during a frantic middle stage that culminated in a third FCY intervention with 80 minutes remaining – this time for a Lotus GT4 going off at Farm. 

It was at another crucial stage, as those who pitted earlier under yellow conditions – Leung and Dawson – benefitted from doing so due to an incorrectly shown red light at pit exit. This held up cars that pitted later under the FCY for approximately 20 seconds, including the #77 McLaren.

This effectively left a two-way fight between Paradine and the #42 Mercedes, though clouds still hung over those cars. For the BMW, it was a one-second stop/go penalty for a pitstop that was too short, while Dawson lapped a GT4 under the final yellow flag period causing a drive-through. 

Once those penalties were served after drivers had been swapped, Jewiss trailed leader Harper by 2.5s with 25 minutes remaining. Although the 2 Seas driver gradually reduced the deficit, Harper held on to take victory by 0.580s. 

“We made a great call on strategy,” said the exuberant BMW factory driver. “It was a bit of a gamble, but we knew that we weren’t going to win the race just on pace, so we had to come up with another plan and obviously we needed luck on our side as well.”

But, as Harper and Leung were a guest entrant, the maximum points still go to the 2 Seas pairing, who now lead the championship by 30 points after a perfect start to the year. 

Second in the standings is Kirchhofer and Tillbrook after their first podium of the season, pipping Adam/Petrobelli and Marcus Clutton/Simon Orange (Orange Racing McLaren) to third at Silverstone. 

Century benefits from Mahiki’s downfall in GT4

Robertson celebrates GT4 glory

Photo by: JEP

Century Motorsport drivers Charlie Robertson and Ravi Ramyead made it a double victory for BMW at Silverstone after Mahiki Lotus crashed from the British GT4 race lead. 

The Lotus Emira of Josh Miller and Aiden Neate suffered a rear-left wheel stud failure, which caused it to go off at Farm in the latter stages of the three-hour contest. Robertson/Ramyead therefore inherited the lead and subsequently never lost position, as the #90 Optimum McLaren (Jack Brown/Marc Warren) and then the #14 Century BMW (Chris Salkeld/Branden Templeton) completed the podium.

“Silverstone 500 winners, that was the aim coming into this weekend and we did it, so absolutely buzzing,” said Robertson. 

Mahiki had the quickest car all weekend, as Miller/Neate beat fellow front-row starters Brown/Warren to pole by a significant 1.3s.

That form carried into race day, as Miller had a faultless start while cars behind didn’t: Warren dropped to fifth having gone off at Copse after being tagged from the rear. 

The Optimum driver recovered well though, climbing up to third within 30 minutes. Although he managed to get close to second-placed Ramyead, Miller was already far down the road establishing a 15s advantage after 40 minutes. 

A safety car soon followed though due to a GT3 off, yet even once the cars had bunched up again for the hour-mark restart, the Emira – now being driven by Neate – quickly pulled away.

Lotus was rapid in qualifying but suffered misfortune in the race

Photo by: JEP

It wasn’t all on pace though, because in the second hour a different strategy from Mahiki began to emerge. Due to it being a Silver-Silver crew, it must serve an extra 12s in the pitlane so, to negate that, the #84 Emira tried to run a longer second stint. 

This meant, by the time Neate crashed with 80 minutes remaining, that car had only pitted once compared to twice for the rest. Yet with a 39.1s lead at the time of the incident, it was still an agonising blow as a heartbroken Miller claimed “this was our race to win, so it’s devastating”.

That effectively decided the race win, as Century inherited the lead and error-free stints from Ramyead and Robertson gave it victory a lap ahead of rivals. 

The Century duo has moved to the top of the championship, tied on points after two rounds with Brown/Warren, who won the Donington Park season-opener. 

Behind the third-placed sister Century at Silverstone was Luca Hopkinson/Harry George (Optimum McLaren), while Will Burns/Jamie Orton (Rob Boston Porsche) rounded out the top five. 

The sun was shining on Century BMW GT4 crew at Silverstone as it leaves Northamptonshire tied with Optimum in standings lead

Photo by: JEP