Pole position and a race win as 2 Seas Motorsport continues championship challenge at Brands Hatch

The British GT Championship resumed after the summer break at Brands Hatch, and 2 Seas Motorsport picked up where they left off. An impressive performance by the British-Bahraini crew shared the spoils across the weekend, as the #18 pairing of Maximillian Götz and Kevin Tse took pole position, while championship leaders Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss delivered a dramatic race win. The championship now heads to the season finale next month with both the Drivers’ and Teams’ titles to be signed off at the #doningtondecider.

With no testing prior to the weekend, the team focused on fine tuning and preparing with newly installed simulators, which have been invested in over the summer. These allowed the drivers to practice side by side ahead of the weekend, and ensured each were able to hit the ground running during the weekend’s practice sessions. The first qualifying session initially looked strong for the #42 crew as Charles was battling for provisional pole, while Kevin steadily built up speed and improved his laptimes. As the session closed out, Kevin timed his final run to perfection, snatching the fastest lap at the very end. With the foundations laid, Max added to Kevin’s impressive benchmark time to further extend the lead at the front. Kiern and Charles combined to line up on the third row.

The race start saw the outside line into Paddock Hill Bend appear the quicker route, as the grid shuffled in the opening corners. Kevin ran more cautiously from pole, while Charles pushed forward gaining ground and the teammates ran in formation, in the top four, at the end of the first lap of the Brands Hatch Grand Prix layout. Caution periods over the following laps kept the order fairly stable, with both the #18 and #42 making strong restarts as the race got back underway.

Battles continued as the pair navigated slower traffic, holding position throughout the stint until the pit window opened. An immediate visit to the pitlane for Charles saw a clean stop by the #42 crew, while Kevin extended his stint to briefly the lead, taking track position. As the pitstops played out, Kiern moved into the lead, while the cars ahead served pitstop compensation times, including the #18 crew following the win at the previous round. Kiern worked to maintain the gap ahead, soaking up increasing pressure from the chasing pack, while Max set about recovering some of the dropped positions.

As Kiern made his way through the back-marker traffic, Max moved back inside the top-10 with half an hour to go. An incident in the GT3 mid-field shortly after this brought out a final caution of the race, and closed the field up for the sprint to the finish line. This increased the pressure on the leader, while also opened up opportunities for the hard-battling Max in the #18 Contempo Concept Mercedes-AMG GT3. On the restart, Kiern held position and maintained his lead, while Max was able to gain further ground. At the line, and as the clock ticked over two hours, Kiern claimed a third victory for the #42 entry to extend the lead at the top of the drivers’ standings, while Max and Kevin scored important championship points, finishing in P7.

“After a frustrating qualifying, we managed to turn things around in the race, and another amazing result for the team. It was important for us to make some early progress, which I managed to do on the opening lap, and a clean pitstop by the team. Then Kiern did a mega job out in front, holding off Marvin and soaking up the pressure in the closing laps, which just highlights again how good he is. It’s amazing to be in this position heading to Donington, but we still have a long way to go. It will be a case of doing what we’ve done all year for one final race – heads down, work hard and just run our own race.”

Charles Dawson, 2 Seas Motorsport driver, #42 Mercedes-AMG GT3.

“The result today was the perfect way to bounce back after a tough Saturday. It was very much a case of ‘it’s not over until it’s over’. The race was full of incidents, but we just focused on what we had to do. A big thanks to everyone at 2 Seas Motorsport, working together, we stayed out of trouble and ran a faultless race.  It’s going to be another challenge heading to Donington, but can’t wait to see what we can do, one last time.”

Kiern Jewiss, 2 Seas Motorsport driver, #42 Mercedes-AMG GT3.

“It was another bumper weekend for the team, sharing the spoils over the two days. It is always a challenge arriving at a weekend off the back of no testing, and Brands Hatch always delivers a great weekend of racing and is tough to overtake around, but both sides of the garage proved themselves to be the ones to beat. Kevin and Max delivered in qualifying, knowing they had a lot to do in the race to overhaul the success penalty from the last race, while Charles and Kiern pulled off another stellar performance. They kept to the plan, both drove brilliantly, and the crew executed a fantastic strategy to bring home their third win of the season, and a first win for AMG at Brands Hatch as well. Very proud of the whole team, and it really is all to play for heading to Donington.”

Isa Al Khalifa, 2 Seas Motorsport team co-owner.

The final race of the British GT Championship takes place with a second visit of the year to Donington Park. The Driver and Teams’ titles will be decided over the weekend, 04-05 October.

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