Ash Sutton disappointed with penalty, but counts himself lucky at Silverstone

Team BMR Subaru driver Ash Sutton has voiced his disappointment at his penalty in Race 2 at Silverstone, when he was handed a one-second punishment and dropped behind title rival Colin Turkington, but driving from last to 11th meant he heads to the finale still leading.

Sutton finished fifth in Race 1, then made a daring pass on Turkington at Copse in Race 2 to grab the final podium position late in the race, but the stewards felt the initial contact between Sutton and Turkington was excessive and reversed the positions.

As this was Sutton’s third strike, that sent him to the back of the grid for the final race.

“It’s a shock to the system for sure,” said Sutton to TouringCarTimes. “I’ve been lucky this time; I took a risk in Race 2 and it didn’t quite pay off, but it all fell into my hands in Race 3 – we now just need to focus on the last round.”

Sutton believes the move was still on, and that West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington closed the door on him.

“I sat there, I calculated it, and in my eyes the move was on until I was driven off the track,” he said. “I’ll stand by that, I’m a racer at the end of the day. If there’s a gap, I’ll make the most of it, but if that gap then gets closed, I can’t disappear unfortunately. But we’ll assess things more carefully for the final round.”

Sutton heads to Brands Hatch ten points ahead of Turkington, while Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden and Speedworks’ Tom Ingram have mathematical chances of winning the drivers’ title, 66 and 67 points back with 67 points remaining.