In 2005, Hughes started his season at the 12 Hours of Sebring, driving the TVR with Kane and Tomlinson, but now under the Team LNT banner, and competing under the new GT2 regulations. It would not prove a successful event; engine failure forced the team to retire both Hughes' car, and their other TVR, driven by Richard Dean, Patrick Pearce and Marc Hynes. He would remain with Team LNT for the remainder of the season. Following the Sebring race, Hughes, now partnered by Pearce, entered the Donington Park round of the British GT Championship, finishing second, a race which was followed by a class victory in the 1000  km of Spa, where Hughes was partnered by Kane. Hughes and Pearce then competed in the FIA GT Magny-Cours Supercar 500, finishing 18th overall, and seventh in class – fifth of the drivers who scored points for the British GT Championship. The duo remained together for the Knockhill and Thruxton rounds, with a second place in the first race held at Thruxton being the strongest result out of the four races. Hughes then returned to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time in three years, this time driving for the RML Group team, driving their MG-Lola EX264 alongside Tommy Erdos and Mike Newton. The race proved far more successful than his two previous events, and the trio won the LMP2 category. He returned to Team LNT for the rest of the season, and although the team had entered two cars in the Castle Combe round of the British GT Championship, neither actually competed in a race, following car No.42's exclusion for failing noise limits, and indeed the team withdrew from the remainder of the series for this reason. Following this withdrawal, the team returned to the Le Mans Series, (the 1000 km of Spa, which they had previously entered, was part of this series) resulting in the team having competed in all five events. However, the class victory in Spa would remain their only success, as Hughes, partnered by Kane (and, for the final race, Tomlinson) failed to finish in any of the remaining events, following engine failure at the 1000 km of Monza, throttle issues at both the 1000km of Silverstone and the 1000 km of Istanbul, and suspension failure at the 1000 km of Nürburgring. The solitary victory meant that Hughes and Kane finished 11th in class at the end of the season.