Saturday at Silverstone was a day of two halves: qualifying in the morning for the three GT classes, followed by the first races of the weekend in the afternoon. The clouds were gathering overhead, threatening a downpour at any moment. But the blue skies courtesy of a polarising filter aside, it was actually genuinely warm, making the teams decisions over set-up even more difficult. For regular race-goers at Silverstone the start-straight looked completely different and barren, as the building work on the track had involved tearing down all the old grandstands, leaving just a portion with Silverstone spelt out in white seats.

Home team Sumo Power were looking to make the most of the positive changes introduced in the latest round of performance balancing: a net loss of 20kg meant a good result could be on the cards, especially if they could nail qualifying. Drivers' concern over the car not putting the power down properly had been tackled with suspension changes: it was hoped this would go some way to improving the situation. 

Morning qualifying approached and the cars were wheeled out onto the pit apron. 

Even in a wide pit-lane it's always a bit chaotic as cars are lined and up and fired up, everyone fighting for space.

Then the cars rumbled out of the pit-lane to take part in the first of the three parts of qualifying. Like F1, GT1 has a knock-out system, with the slowest eight cars (seven for the first session courtesy of the missing Matech Ford GT) being removed at the end of each 20 minute segment. 

Those clouds kept rolling in for some teams.

Both Triple-H Maserati MC12s dropped out in the second segment.

Sumo Power had a fantastic session: both cars pushed through to the final eight. #23 of Michael Krumm and Peter Dumbreck secured third (1:59.501); #22 with Warren Hughes and Jamie Campbell-Walter was just two places behind (2:00.459). Unfortunately the sister Nissan team, SRT, had no such luck: both cars were knocked out after the first qualifying segment.

The final eight cars fought hard right up until the flag dropped for the end of qualifying, but the Young Driver Aston Martin of Darren Turner and Tomas Enge ran away with pole with a 1:58.08 lap; the #9 DB9 (Frederic Makowiecki and Thomas Accary) of the Hexis team managed second on a 1:59.28. 

In between races the marshals take to the track to sweep up tyre debris. This is outside the first corner at Copse. There's a big load of gravel directly ahead of the corner, but around from the apex is a big swathe of concrete run-off: this gets heavily used by cars as they push through the flat-out right-hander.

Also preparing were the series officials. They would be busy in the race…

The grid formed up for the qualifying race with the Astons up front.

In third place, the Sumo Power #23 car was looking strong. The team were ecstatic to be at the sharp end of the grid.

As it turned out, the race was going to be decided by who made the least errors as much as who was fastest…

The first turn: it was an appalling start for the Triple H Maseratis: #34 was sandwiched at the first corner and fired off onto the grass.

Seven laps later #33 was being pushed into the garage and retirement.

Sumo Power's GT-Rs were right on the pace: both cars up front and harrying the third placed #1 MC12 that had barged past #23 at the start.

And so they continued: they could match the Maserati's pace, but couldn't find a way past Bartels in the Vitaphone car.

Jamie Campbell-Walter in #22 was the first to stop after he felt his tyres go off: Warren Hughes took over.

This started a flurry of activity on the pit-lane: but it wouldn't just be frenetic pit-stops. The approach to the Silverstone pit-lane is defined by a white line, and the #23 GT-R, #34 Maserati and #7 DB9 Aston were all penalised for cutting the entry line: drive-through penalties all round.

It was double disaster for the #7 DB9 Aston, as Darren Turner cut the pit-lane for a second time, earning a stop-go penalty. DT screamed away from the box and fought his way back up to fourth, but finished 28 seconds off the winner – a potential victory thrown away.

Even with both cars stopped, the pit crews remained on alert with wet tyres at the ready just in case. In the Sumo Power garage, as in all the others, the teams sat, leaning forward, intently watching the TV and timing screens.

The Corvettes had a tough day: after being so strong in Abu Dhabi and scything through from the back of the field, the performance changes have obviously taken the edge of them.

The 'Vettes padded out the midfield: 7th, 11th, 12th and 13th at the end.

Thomas Mutsch in the Matech Ford GT spun away a top-10 result and eventually he and Romain Grosjean finished 21st and a lap down: a stunningly bad result after the success of Abu Dhabi.

Once again the two SRT GT-Rs ran closely together – too closely together in fact, as Karl Wendlinger in #3 and Seiji Ara in #4 collided at Vale corner on lap 24, spinning the #3 out.

The #22 Sumo Power tailed the #7 Aston home in fifth position, after both cars had battled past Jos Menton's #25 Lamborghini.

At the flag Hexis Racing finished 1-2, making up for the nightmare of Abu Dhabi. Thomas Accary and Frederic Makowiecki in #9 took the flag after 30 laps.

Just 3.5 seconds behind was the #10 car of Jonathan Hirschi and Clivio Piccione, with the #1 Maserati another second behind.

Race over, the cars were directed into Parc Fermé for scrutineering checks. There's a bit of an anti-climax after the Qualifying Race, as there's no podium celebration.

But it had been a great opening race on the new Silverstone track: and thankfully without any serious damage inflicted.

The teams have to wait until their cars have been checked before they can push them down the pit-lane and back into the garages. A few more hours of preparation, and then the covers went on and the garage doors came down.

And then the inevitable rain came… How much would fall, and would it affect the main races tomorrow?

Jonathan Moore

Sumo Power GT

FIA GT1

FIA GT web TV

Silverstone