Ashley Sutton takes dramatic Donington Park pole
Ashley Sutton took pole position in a frantic five minute dash for pole position in a weather-affected qualifying session at Donington Park.
The session began with a wet track, with Tom Ingram the fastest of the first flying laps, but some 10 seconds slower than times set in the two morning practice sessions, with Mat Jackson taking provisional pole the next time around with a 1:19.901.
The session remained fairly static for the first half, with Jackson leading Ashley Sutton, Josh Cook, Colin Turkington and Sam Tordoff. However, with just over five minutes to go and the track drying out, times began to tumble.
A plethora of drivers, including Sam Tordoff, Andrew Jordan, Mat Jackson and Gordon Shedden all had their time at the top of the standings, with the latter being the driver on top as the session came to a premature end owing to Jordan going into the gravel at the Old Hairpin.
With the clock reset to five minutes, a frantic five minute dash for pole ensued, with Mat Jackson the first man to dip into the 72 second lap times with a 1:12.261, taking provisional pole before ending up in the Old Hairpin gravel trap on the very next lap.
Ashley Sutton then took pole position on his next flying lap, half a second ahead of Jackson’s time, posting a 1:11.729. Sutton’s time came seconds before the red flag, and later chequered flag, came out for the stranded Ford Focus.
Josh Cook followed his team-mate on to the front row, while Jackson was able to keep third, joined by Honda’s Gordon Shedden on the second row. Tom Ingram, Rob Collard, Aron Smith, Jack Goff, Matt Neal and Jake Hill rounded out the top ten.
Colin Turkington was the best of the Team BMR quartet in eleventh, with Warren Scott, James Cole and Jason Plato finishing up in 16th, 17th and 18th respectively. Andrew Jordan ended up 25th in the standings having been unable to compete in the five minute shootout having caused the red flag.
