Excitement all the way in the first half of 4 Hours of Silverstone

The no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Daniel McKenzie headed up the LMGTE field and the no98 ART Grand Prix McLaren of Gregoire Demoustier led the GTC grid.  However a few laps later the two cars plus the nr48 Murphy Prototypes and the no58 Team Sofrev-ASP Ferrari of Anthony Pons had to serve a Stop-Go penalty for jumping the start.

After the penalties were served the race settled down, with plenty of racing action throughout the field.  Albuquerque was pulling away from the no28 Greaves Motorsport of James Littlejohn and the no43 Newblood by Morand Racing Morgan-Judd of Christian Klien. 

Michael Lyons in the nr54 AF Corse Ferrari started to move up the field, passing the nr72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Sergey Zlobin for second place and then hitting the front a few laps later.

Lap 21 saw the start of the first set of pitstops with the no41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek of Matthew McMurry being the first to stop for fuel.  Two laps later Filipe Albuquerque pitted from the lead, handing over the Zytek-Nissan to Simon Dolan.

In GTC the no75 Prospeed Competition Porsche of Maxime Soulet had worked its way to the front of the GTC field ahead of the 96 Team Ukraine Ferrari of Andriy Kruglyk.

Gonzalez had brought the no48 Murphy Oreca back into contention for a podium position when disaster stuck.  A tyre exploded as the Venezuelan turned into Copse Corner and he had to limp back to the pits for an entire lap of the Silverstone circuit.  Yan Goudy's Art Grand Prix GTC Class McLaren also had to head to the pits with a rear left flat tyre.

As the clock ticked past the two hour mark Simon Dolan was leading the race by 38 seconds in the no38 Jota Sport Zytek, ahead of the no43 Newblood by Morand Racing Morgan of Romain Brandela.  In LMGTE the leader was Soheil Ayari in the no58 Team Sofrev-ASP Ferrari and in GTC the no96 Team Ukraine Ferrari was ahead of the no73 SMP Racing Ferrai.