The three-time champion sailed easily through to the top 10 shootout by topping the first qualifying session, and then stamped in two laps quicker than the best anyone else could manage in his Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus ST.
Sutton’s third consecutive pole came by 0.225 seconds from the West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport of Jake Hill, and was achieved despite his being allowed the lowest amount of hybrid boost of one second per lap at a minimum speed of 135km/h.
“It’s mega,” said Sutton, who made it five out of five poles this season for the NAPA-liveried Motorbase squad.
“We’re in such a rhythm. We’ve made one change since we rolled it off the truck.
“We all love the soft tyre in general, but to qualify on it [the first time this has happened this season] is something else.”
Hill has been trying what he described as a “radical” set-up on the BMW at Oulton and it seemed to pay off as he slotted comfortably into second place, on seven seconds of hybrid at 130km/h.
Up to third position came a delighted Ricky Collard, going great guns in the lead Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport, and he will share the second-row with the Team Hard Cupra Leon of Bobby Thompson.
Both Collard and Thompson are outside the top seven in the championship so were on the maximum 15s/115km/h of hybrid.
Dan Cammish only just squeaked into Q2 by 0.014s, but he vaulted his Motorbase Ford up to fifth in the 10-minute shootout on 9s/130km/h of hybrid.
The other car on the third row will be the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N of free practice topper Tom Ingram.
Reigning champion Ingram, who had 3s/135km/h of hybrid, sat out most of Q1 after setting a time easily quick enough to progress before a red flag on 10 minutes, but couldn’t get near that performance in Q2.
Colin Turkington had vaulted his WSR BMW up from ninth to seventh at the chequered flag on the final lap of Q2, with 5s of hybrid at a minimum 135km/h, but was disqualified from qualifying after the session due to his car failing scrutineering checks on his fuel.
Josh Cook qualified his One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R in eighth, but moves up to seventh due to Turkington's omission.
Rounding out the Q2 field were Aron Taylor-Smith (Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra) and Rory Butcher (Speedworks Toyota).
A number of lap times were disallowed in Q1 for track-limits breaches, and this eliminated the Motorbase Ford of Dan Rowbottom from the shootout.
The red flag was caused when Will Powell spun his Honda into the gravel at Druids.
BTCC Oulton Park - Qualifying result
Q2
| Cla | Driver | Time | Gap | km/h | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 Ashley Sutton |
1'24.832 | 94.464 | ||
| 2 |
Jake Hill |
1'25.057 | 0.225 | 94.214 | |
| 3 |
Ricky Collard |
1'25.300 | 0.468 | 93.946 | |
| 4 | Bobby Thompson | 1'25.366 | 0.534 | 93.873 | |
| 5 |
Dan Cammish |
1'25.443 | 0.611 | 93.789 | |
| 6 |
Tom Ingram |
1'25.465 | 0.633 | 93.765 | |
| 7 |
Josh Cook |
1'25.487 | 0.655 | 93.741 | |
| 8 |
 Aron Taylor-Smith |
1'25.613 | 0.781 | 93.603 | |
| 9 |
Rory Butcher |
1'25.864 | 1.032 | 93.329 | |
|
Colin Turkington |
1'25.475 | 0.643 | 93.754 | ||
| View full results | |||||
Q1
| Cla | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Ashley Sutton |
1'24.913 | |
| 2 |
Tom Ingram |
1'25.234 | 0.321 |
| 3 |
Jake Hill |
1'25.236 | 0.323 |
| 4 |
Ricky Collard |
1'25.377 | 0.464 |
| 5 |
Colin Turkington |
1'25.412 | 0.499 |
| 6 |
Josh Cook |
1'25.498 | 0.585 |
| 7 | Bobby Thompson | 1'25.542 | 0.629 |
| 8 |
Rory Butcher |
1'25.552 | 0.639 |
| 9 |
Aron Taylor-Smith |
1'25.563 | 0.650 |
| 10 |
Dan Cammish |
1'25.574 | 0.661 |
| 11 |
Adam Morgan |
1'25.588 | 0.675 |
| 12 |
Daniel Rowbottom |
1'25.593 | 0.680 |
| 13 |
Stephen Jelley |
1'25.650 | 0.737 |
| 14 |
Aiden Moffat |
1'25.658 | 0.745 |
| 15 | George Gamble | 1'25.666 | 0.753 |
| 16 |
Daniel Lloyd |
1'25.743 | 0.830 |
| 17 | Mikey Doble | 1'25.825 | 0.912 |
| 18 |
Andrew Watson |
1'25.856 | 0.943 |
| 19 |
Sam Osborne |
1'25.862 | 0.949 |
| 20 | Ronan Pearson | 1'25.898 | 0.985 |
| 21 | Dexter Patterson | 1'25.919 | 1.006 |
| 22 |
Tom Chilton |
1'26.068 | 1.155 |
| 23 | Jade Edwards | 1'26.396 | 1.483 |
| 24 | Jack Butel | 1'26.544 | 1.631 |
| 25 | Nicolas Hamilton | 1'26.885 | 1.972 |
| 26 | Nick Halstead | 1'27.244 | 2.331 |
| 27 | Will Powell | 1'31.552 | 6.639 |
| View full results | |||
