Ash Sutton delighted with second row slot

Ash Sutton admitted he was delighted to overcome a lack of hybrid thanks to his position as championship leader to secure a second row grid slot for the BTCC finale.

Sutton missed out on the front row by just 0.001 after a hard fought session at the Kent circuit, putting him ahead of Jake Hill and Colin Turkington – two of his four rivals for the title this weekend.

Tom Ingram however was able to grab pole and Sutton admitted that the Hyundai man was simply out of reach as he failed to maximise his first run in the session.

“I think most of the grid couldn’t match that!” he said. “With no hybrid, P3 is a great result and we literally just missed out on P2. I don’t think i could have done a better job, and now we have to get our heads down and look ahead to tomorrow.”

“We wasted the first set of tyres in the session as we tucked up behind Dan for a tow and it wasn’t the right call, so I couldn’t maximise what I had under me. We came in, rested and got clear a clear head – but it still tried to kill me out the back!

“The goal now is to maximise our points in race one compared to Tom but this is the BTCC, and who knows what will happen on lap one.”