Photo: PSP Images

Ash Sutton tops dry second practice session at Silverstone

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Triple Eight MG driver Ash Sutton ended the second and final practice session at Silverstone fastest of all after three lightning-quick laps at the end of the practice, dropping early pace-setter Adam Morgan’s Mercedes and finishing ahead of Speedworks Toyota driver Tom Ingram.

Sutton’s penultimate lap of the session put him ahead of Adam Morgan, who had just gone fastest of all five minutes earlier in his Ciceley Racing-run Mercedes-Benz A-Class. The Mercedes driver had just deposed the Speedworks Toyota of Tom Ingram and the BKR Volkssagen of Aron Smith, who had both previously set the same time to hold the top spot throughout much of the session.

Sutton then improved even further on his final lap with a time of 58.589, but a late challenge from Ingram saw him move up to second ahead of Morgan, coming within a tenth of a second of Sutton and moved back to up to second position in his Toyota Avensis.

The principal championship protagonists were absent from the top of the running order, with points leader Sam Tordoff down in 12th position in the West Surrey Racing BMW, one spot behind the fastest of the Team BMR Subarus, Colin Turkington.

Matt Neal was the fastest of the two Team Dynamics Honda Civics in 16th, with team-mate Gordon Shedden 19th.

A number of drivers received warnings for exceeding track limits, including Proton driver Dan Welch, Ciceley Mercedes’ Adam Morgan, Motorbase Ford’s Mat Jackson, the two Team BKR Volkswagen drivers Mark Howard and Aron Smith, Maximum Motorsport Ford’s Stewart Lines, West Surrey Racing BMW driver Rob Collard, Ollie Jackson in the AmD Tuning Audi and two-time champion Jason Plato in the Team BMR Subaru.

Mark Howard then also suffered a puncture on his Volkswagen CC, with the team quickly changing it and sending him back out, as he then proceeded to spin off at Brooklands.

Matt Simpson, who was fourth fastest in the wet first practice session, missed most of the session due to an overheating issue on his Speedworks Honda Civic, while the Mercedes A-Class of Aiden Moffat missed the entire session following an engine change after Free Practice 1.

Qualifying is next up and takes place at 15:45 BST.