BTCC Donington: Sutton beats Ingram in pole battle

But this time Sutton had to fend off a stern challenge from reigning champion Tom Ingram, who ran him extremely close but could not prevent the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST squad from extending its 2023 pole wipeout to eight from eight.

Sutton substantially lowered Ingram’s provisional pole time as the session headed into the final 10 minutes with a seemingly unbeatable effort.

But with just a couple of minutes on the clock, Ingram set sail on a lap on which he set two purple sectors, but in the final sector lost 0.150 seconds compared to his earlier time.

Not far behind him on the track, Sutton was on a flier too – he went green in sector one, lowered Ingram’s best in the next portion of the lap, and completed the tour to grab pole by 0.182s.

That was despite Sutton being allowed just one second per lap of hybrid boost, compared to the three of Ingram.

“When Tom put his lap in, I thought I’ve got to dig deep here, but I didn’t realise the potential we had in the car,” said Sutton.

“No one’s had a clear run today, with the weather and the red flags in free practice. I’m so in tune with the car at the moment – the guys give me exactly what I need, and I’m in a good place.”

Ingram blamed himself for missing out on pole: “The car feels alive this weekend. It’s probably me getting excited but I feel I’ve got a car that can challenge for pole.

Tom Ingram, Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 Hyundai i30 N Fastback (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

“We lost out with dry running [in free practice, when he lost a wheel at the Old Hairpin] when we were sat on the sidelines, so there are 101 excuses.”

Ricky Collard, running the regulation 15s of hybrid, was in the mix all session and did a superb job to take third place in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla.

As ever, the intra-West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport battle was entertaining. Colin Turkington moved to the fore late on to edge out Jake Hill, who had a visit to the Old Hairpin gravel trap early in the session.

To add insult to injury for Hill, he was also demoted by Irish veteran Aron Taylor-Smith, who popped up late on in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra to go fifth, despite damage to the right-front corner from a clout of a tyre stack at the esses.

Hill will also take a three-place grid penalty for his part in his incident with team-mate Stephen Jelley in the final race last time out at Knockhill, dropping him to ninth on the grid.

That moves Josh Cook up to sixth, after a strong performance considering the One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R squad missed last month’s test on the GP circuit.

Adam Morgan will start his WSR BMW from seventh, while rookie Ronan Pearson continued his excellent progress from Knockhill and will join the Lancastrian on the fourth row in his Excelr8 Hyundai.

Motorbase Ford driver Dan Rowbottom took the final spot in the top 10 to start alongside Hill.

There was one red flag a third of the way through the session, to recover the Excelr8 Hyundai of Nick Halstead from the gravel on the exit of the esses.

BTCC Donington Park - Qualifying Results

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info

     

Driver Info			Main Information
Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	A. Sutton Ashley Sutton NAPA Racing UK	116		Ford Focus ST	14	1'33.154		76.480
2	T. Ingram Tom Ingram BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8	1		Hyundai i30N	13	+0.182	0.182	76.331
3	R. Collard Ricky Collard Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	37		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	+0.396	0.214	76.156
4	C. Turkington Colin Turkington Team BMW	4		BMW 330e M Sport	17	+0.437	0.041	76.123
5	A. Taylor-Smith Aron Taylor-Smith CarStore Power Maxed Racing	40		Vauxhall Astra	14	+0.488	0.051	76.081
6	J. Hill Jake Hill Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	24		BMW 330e M Sport	16	+0.569	0.081	76.015
7	J. Cook Josh Cook One Motorsport with Starline Racing	66		Honda Civic Type R	15	+0.688	0.119	75.919
8	A. Morgan Adam Morgan Team BMW	33		BMW 330e M Sport	16	+0.701	0.013	75.909
9	R. Pearson Ronan Pearson BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8	14		Hyundai i30N	16	+0.750	0.049	75.869
10	D. Rowbottom Daniel Rowbottom NAPA Racing UK	32		Ford Focus ST	15	+0.790	0.040	75.837
11	T. Chilton Tom Chilton BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8	3		Hyundai i30N	14	+0.835	0.045	75.800
12	A. Watson Andrew Watson CarStore Power Maxed Racing	11		Vauxhall Astra	14	+0.846	0.011	75.791
13	A. Moffat Aiden Moffat One Motorsport with Starline Racing	16		Honda Civic Type R	15	+0.898	0.052	75.750
14	R. Butcher Rory Butcher Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	6		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	+0.913	0.015	75.738
15	S. Osborne Sam Osborne NAPA Racing UK	77		Ford Focus ST	14	+0.945	0.032	75.712
16	M. Doble Mikey Doble CarStore Power Maxed Racing	88		Vauxhall Astra	11	+0.983	0.038	75.681
17	D. Lloyd Daniel Lloyd Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils	123		Cupra León	13	+1.009	0.026	75.660
18	G. Gamble George Gamble Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	42		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	+1.067	0.058	75.614
19	M. Crees Michael Crees BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8	777		Cupra León	13	+1.145	0.078	75.551
20	S. Jelley Stephen Jelley Team BMW	12		BMW 330e M Sport	16	+1.297	0.152	75.430
21	D. Patterson Dexter Patterson Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD.	17		Cupra León	14	+1.329	0.032	75.404
22	J. Butel Jack Butel Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown	96		Cupra León	12	+1.616	0.287	75.176
23	J. Edwards Jade Edwards Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD.	99		Cupra León	15	+1.755	0.139	75.066
24	D. De Daryl De Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD.	18		Cupra León	13	+2.004	0.249	74.869
25	N. Halstead Nick Halstead BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8	22		Hyundai i30N	4
View full results