Andrew Jarman and Jody Fannin scored their second GT3 pole position in as many Avon Tyres British GT Championship race weekends at Donington Park today while, behind, there were mixed fortunes for the title contenders ahead of tomorrow’s title decider.

Beechdean AMR’s Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam share the front row with the TF Sport Aston Martin, while the Triple Eight Racing BMW of Lee Mowle and Joe Osborne is third.

Following a day of fluctuating conditions, bright sunshine and a dry track greeted drivers before the two 10-minute sessions. As usual the Ams were out first, Rick Parfitt Jnr and Ross Wylie trading initial fastest times before Jarman took control. The Snetterton Race 1 pole-sitter’s first effort proved just a tenth quicker than Parfitt Jnr before extending his advantage to almost a second.

Howard, who’d topped opening free practice, eventually ended up 0.5s shy of Jarman’s benchmark, which would have been good enough for eighth in the subsequent Pro session.

Mowle’s late flyer moved him up to third ahead of Von Ryan Racing’s Wylie, Jon Minshaw’s Barwell Motorsport BMW and Team LNT’s Parfitt Jnr. But with positions second to 12th covered by just eight tenths there was still plenty of opportunities for those in the midfield to move up, and so it proved.

While the top-three didn’t change – Fannin’s second quick lap was enough to clinch pole by a combined 0.259s from Adam and Osborne – there was much change further back as the other two championship contending crews moved forwards.

Two fastest laps in quick succession, his second a 1m28.276s, helped Ecurie Ecosse’s Alexander Sims leap from 11th after the Am session to fifth on the grid for tomorrow’s race behind Barwell team-mate Phil Keen, who built on Minshaw’s strong earlier showing. Rory Butcher also had work to do following Oman Racing Team co-driver Liam Griffin’s small excursion in his Am session, and the Scot’s best lap was enough to see him take eighth.

Matt Bell was less than two tenths shy of Sims’ benchmark and lines up immediately behind the BMW in sixth after moving up four positions from TF Sport co-driver Derek Johnston’s Am session. However, the Andrew Watson/Wylie McLaren slipped the same number of places to seventh.

The Tom Oliphant/Parfitt Jnr Ginetta starts ninth ahead of 22GT Racing’s Jon Barnes and Mark Farmer who’d never turned a dry lap around Donington Park’s GP layout prior to the AM qualifying session.

Andrew Jarman, #27 TF Sport Aston Martin V12 Vantage: “It was a good lap and there wasn’t much left out there. I only managed one lap in the dry on old tyres this morning but the team said to go out and banzai it, which I did! We’ve found and developed a really good set-up over the last three or four races, which gave me a chance to set a very good lap that, this time, was fortunately good enough for pole. Jody also did a great job to make sure of it. There’s a title scrap going on behind us tomorrow so hopefully they can worry about battling each other while we get away at the front.”

Jody Fannin, #27 TF Sport Aston Martin V12 Vantage: “It was a little bit of a surprise, to be honest, because I didn’t do a dry lap earlier today and haven’t raced on the GP layout since 2012. Obviously Andrew did a fantastic job in his session but I didn’t feel like mine was amazing. Every corner was an adventure because I didn’t know where the braking points were; there was some guess work involved! But I went purple on my last lap before the red flags came out so it went about as well as could have been expected. It’s taken a while but, as a team, we feel like it’s come together over the last few races.”

Andrew Howard, #007 Beechdean AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage: “We’ve done a good job but the reality is that the 20-second success penalty will be a killer. We need a clean first 50 minutes and then, I hate to say it, a Safety Car to have a chance. It would be nice if the last 15 minutes were Sims and Jonny showing everyone why they’re some of the top Pro drivers in the country, albeit with Jonny coming out on top! I’d also be happy if it rains, but don’t think we’ll get it. With the way Sims is driving at the moment it’s still definitely his and Attard’s title to lose.”

Lee Mowle, #888 Triple Eight Racing BMW Z4 GT3: “Third’s not bad and we can definitely race from there. Howard’s got what, 20 seconds? So yeah, we’ll just get past him at Turn 1…! Hats off to Andrew Jarman for that lap; he’s done really well the last two weekends. I love this circuit and we seem really quick through the first part in particular so it’ll be interesting, especially as the other title contenders are either starting behind us or will be after the pit-stops. It’s tough to overtake safely around here, too, so that’s in our favour.”

Four crews, two hours, one title: British GT’s #DoningtonDecider is live on Motors TV (Freeview 71 & 240, Sky 447 and Virgin Media 545) from 12:45 BST tomorrow.