Ash Sutton hits the front with one to go

Ash Sutton admitted it was ‘perfect timing’ to hit the front in the BTCC standings after securing the championship lead at Silverstone.

Sutton took full advantage of a challenging weekend for Colin Turkington to move from second place into the points lead – with the NAPA Racing driver now holding a five point lead over Jake Hill with just the Brands Hatch finale left to run.

Having qualified in seventh place, Sutton took sixth in race one before fighting his way forwards to fourth in race two.

A strong run in the weekend finale then saw the defending champion chase Tom Ingram home in second spot and means he will be the man to beat as he chases a record-equalling fourth crown on Finals Day.

“After the way the year started, to now be leading the championship is perfect timing and we couldn’t really have asked for more this weekend,” he said.

“We’ve got into a really good place with the car, although we came here with some doubt in our mind as we knew it wasn’t going to be our best track as we haven’t got the slippiest car in a straight line. But seventh on the grid was great, and we just chipped away at the races and grabbed the points.

“We put our best foot forwards and feel we did the best we could. The Hyundai and BMW were both strong and had the edge over us, but I’d say our weekend was pretty much perfect to allow us to move into the lead.

“I’ve always gone well at Brands Hatch, so we’ll see what the weather does in a few weeks and how we get on.”