Lamborghini’s extraordinary British GT Championship record at Oulton Park continued as Barwell Motorsport’s Rob Collard and Hugo Cook led from start to finish in a nervy opening race to give the Huracán GT3 its 10th victory at the Cheshire circuit since 2016.
As is now tradition for the annual trip to Oulton Park, the third and fourth rounds of the 2025 season took place over the Bank Holiday weekend, with qualifying taking place on Saturday afternoon in wet conditions. Reigning British GT champion Collard set the pace in the opening session, producing a best lap of 1m33.673 to claim pole position for race one in the #1 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2. Seventh in the first session, the #78 was also on the pace in the second session, with Lamborghini Factory Driver Sandy Mitchell lining up second, just 0.062s shy of the pole position time.
Collard maintained his advantage at the head of the field in Monday’s dry opening one-hour race, fending off an early assault by the Aston Martin at the first corner. Further back, Alex Martin survived a brief trip across the grass to keep the #78 in seventh position.
Chased hard by the Aston, Collard established a comfortable if slender half-second margin throughout the opening stint which, towards the end, was interrupted by a full course yellow period following a heavy crash for a GT4 competitor. As the pit window opened, almost all the GT3 cars made their compulsory stop, with Collard swapping with Cook. The #1 held onto its lead as the second-placed Aston had to serve an additional regulation five-seconds at its stop.
Martin waited a lap longer to make his stop and handed over to Mitchell in the #78. Having been stuck behind the #8 Mercedes for the first half of the race, the situation remained unchanged as the safety car came out at the end of the FCY period. At the restart, Cook came under pressure from the Mercedes of Maxi Götz, now up to second following the pit cycle, but the Cheshire driver kept his nerve and stabilized the gap at just over half a second. Heading into the closing stages, lapped GT4 traffic concertinaed the leading group but a decisive pass on a McLaren backmarker with two laps to go gave Cook enough of a margin out front to be able to claim his maiden victory in British GT and Lamborghini’s first success of the year by just under a second.
Martin and Mitchell made good ground from their starting position and, following a post-race penalty for the #42 Mercedes, finished fifth at the end, ensuring they would have no success penalty for the afternoon’s second race of the day.
Come the afternoon, the weather had changed dramatically, and the race began on a wet track, with Mitchell consolidating his second place around the outside of turn one with Cook dropped four places to 11th in the #1. With track conditions evolving, Cook elected to pit at the end of the opening lap to switch onto slick tyres as the rest of the field initially stayed out on wets.
Barwell gambled on the track drying out completely and brought second-placed Mitchell in two laps later, but the rain returned and the #78 made a second pit-stop to change back to wets ahead of the mandatory stop. Unfortunately for the #78, a loose wheel forced the car back in for a fourth time, eliminating its already slim victory chances. The #1 remained on slicks and moved back into the top 10 with Collard at the wheel, eventually finishing a lap down in 10th.
In the championship standings Cook now lies fourth with 53 points, while Martin – the only full-season driver in the #78 – is sixth with 49 points. Having missed the opening round, Collard is seventh in the table, one place ahead of Mitchell, who is contesting a partial campaign this year.
The next round of the 2025 British GT Championship will take place over the weekend of 20-22 June at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.
