Ash Sutton pleased to lead contenders heading into race day

Ash Sutton admitted he was pleased to lead the main title contenders in qualifying for the BTCC finale at Brands Hatch.

Despite carrying maximum ballast on his car once again, the Laser Tools Racing driver was in the mix in both free practice sessions and then managed to stick his Infiniti Q50 in sixth spot on the grid for the opening race of the weekend.

Although Josh Cook was able to grab second on the grid, he would now need a perfect race day and for Sutton to score no points at all to stand any chance of the crown, with Sutton ahead of the other three drivers – Colin Turkington, Tom Ingram and Jake Hill – who could still prevent him from winning a third title on Sunday.

“As much I love Josh, he isn’t really in contention as I only need to score a point to knock him out of the title race, but in terms of the rest of the guys, it’s perfect,” he said. “They are all going to be starting behind me and the driver who is right behind me is my team-mate which is the ideal situation to be in going into race day.

“in FP1 and FP2 we had struggled with the car a little bit but we put that down to the tyres and when we bolted new rubber on at the end of the second session, I felt confident. The car was on rails out the back and overall it was a good package.”