BTCC Season 2025 – Donington Park gp – Free Practice 1
Welcome to the first Free Practice session here at Donington Park in Leicestershire where we will be using the long Grand Prix circuit including the Melbourne Loop.
Goodyear’s tyre allocation will take centre stage this weekend as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) heads to Donington Park’s Grand Prix circuit for rounds 22, 23 and 24 of the season. The 2.49-mile GP configuration, featuring additional challenges compared to the National layout used for the opening rounds, places particular demands on traction and braking.
Drivers will receive two sets of Goodyear’s yellow-stickered medium compound tyres and one set of the red-stickered hard compound tyres for the weekend. These will be the choices for the races, but a significant change is that carryover tyres from previous rounds, which include the white-stickered soft compound tyres, can be used in qualifying for the first time.
The extended GP layout requires drivers to optimise their setups to handle the circuit’s varied demands, making tyre strategy even more critical across the three races.
This was purely a test session for Charles and Aiden, but Charles put a flying lap in for the team which showed the pace of the car in 5th. Aiden, whilst experimenting with different car set ups was a couple of seconds behind.
All eyes are on the sky at the moment as the various weather forecasts are showing the potential of a shower after lunch – possibly during Qualifying!!
Free Practice 2 follows shortly and we will bring you all of the details.