Sutton, who holds a 42-point advantage over Tom Ingram in the rankings, sat on the bubble at the wheel of his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST during the last couple of minutes in qualifying on the National Circuit.
Rowbottom was one of those knocking on the door, and put in green times in the first two sectors on laps during his final run, only to never match his previous best in the final sector.
The bearded Midlander ended up 13th, and Sutton was through to Q2, where he vaulted up the order to qualify fifth.
“We were on the cusp of that,” Sutton told Autosport. “I think I owe ‘Rowbo’ a beer – he went green, and then he got a radio call…
“The drinks are on me for any night out in our lifetime!
“I’ve been chasing the balance, and we hadn’t quite got it where we wanted it. But we were tickling it, and chucked new front tyres at it for Q2.
“I’ll take fifth – I’d obviously prefer to be ahead of Tom and Jake [Ingram and Hill, his closest title rivals], but I’m happy that it’s as close as it is.”
With Hill ending up fourth, Sutton can now mathematically not be beaten in the Goodyear Wingfoot Award, where points are dished out for qualifying positions across the season.
He added that Silverstone is the track where the hybrid-usage offset for successful drivers is at its most pronounced – as championship leader, he enjoyed just one second per lap at a minimum speed of 135km/h, to the 15s/115km/h of poleman Mikey Doble.
“Our simulations estimate that we lose three and a half to four-tenths here, and they haven’t let us down all year,” he said.
“The toughest are here, Oulton Park and Donington GP, but at those two tracks, there are more corners to claw it back.
“It’s a bit difficult on a track that only has four corners!”
Meanwhile, surprise poleman Doble said that he won’t be thinking of Jack Sears Trophy points in the first race.
He trails Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra team-mate and fellow BTCC rookie Andrew Watson by 14 points in the contest for drivers who have never scored an overall BTCC podium before the season, while Sam Osborne, Dexter Patterson and the ever-improving Ronan Pearson are all within 45 of the summit.
“The safest thing to do is to try and forget the Jack Sears and try to keep as many cars as you can behind you,” said Doble, who became the first person to break the 2023 season domination of pole position by the NAPA-liveried Fords.
“So we won’t be thinking about the Jack Sears in the first race.
“The car’s been in the window all day – we’ve just been making fine-tuning adjustments and I focused on not overdriving and stringing the lap together.
“Being the first to knock the NAPA cars off pole certainly adds something to it.”
Doble has come on in leaps and bounds during 2023, after graduating to the BTCC as the reigning Ginetta GT5 and BMW Compact champion.
“We had three days plus the media day in the car before the season and didn’t get much dry running in,” he added.
“I arrived at Donington for the first round still having to learn to drive it in the dry.”
