BTCC Snetterton: Sutton takes lead of the standings with second win
Ash Sutton assumed the lead of the British Touring Car Championship drivers' standings with a commanding second win from as many races at Snetterton
Team BMR driver Sutton was never headed in Sunday's second race and crossed the line the best part of three seconds clear of WSR BMW driver Colin Turkington in his Subaru Levorg.
While he held his lead when the lights went out, Sutton was stalked closely through Riches by the fast-starting WSR BMW 125i M Sport of Andrew Jordan who had started fourth.
As Jordan followed the leader around the Wilson hairpin, Sutton's Subaru team-mate Jason Plato - who himself had climbed to third from fifth on the grid - went deeper into the corner and was alongside Jordan on the exit.
Plato hung around the outside but his front-right corner made contact with Jordan's left-rear, putting the pair onto the grass.
That allowed second-place starter Jack Goff to reclaim the position, as Jordan rejoined in third and Plato dropped into the midfield.
A safety car then neutralised the field after Stewart Lines - returning to the grid - stopped on the exit of Murrays having made contact with the MG of Josh Cook.
Sutton bolted on the subsequent restart at the end of lap four, and while Goff gave chase in the early laps he began to fall away from the leader as he came under increasing pressure from the chasing BMWs.
Sutton cantered to the finish to claim his second win at the Norfolk circuit and now has a six-point lead at the head of the drivers' standings over Turkington, who advanced from seventh on the grid.
Goff had clung on to second valiantly and survived an attack from Jordan, who dropped behind team-mates Rob Collard and Turkington as a result.
Collard was the man to eventually make Goff crack, after nudging a gap on the approach to the long right-hander of Coram and squeezed into second before Murrays, with Turkington following him through.
But Turkington ended up the best-placed of the BMWs after clearing Collard at the end of the Bentley Straight and into Nelson, with Collard suggesting he had a misfire while changing gear before the move.
Mat Jackson sliced his way through the field to claim fourth in his Motorbase Ford Focus, having also made his way past eventual fifth-place finisher Goff.
Jordan slipped back as far as seventh but fought his way back past the leading factory Honda Civic of Gordon Shedden before the flag to claim sixth ahead of the erstwhile championship leader.
James Cole finished eighth in his Team BMR Subaru Levorg, and will start the reversed-grid third race from pole.
RESULT - 14 LAPS
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ash Sutton | Team BMR | Subaru | 29m51.887s |
2 | Colin Turkington | WSR | BMW | 2.955s |
3 | Rob Collard | WSR | BMW | 3.657s |
4 | Mat Jackson | Motorbase | Ford | 5.494s |
5 | Jack Goff | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 8.166s |
6 | Andrew Jordan | WSR | BMW | 8.419s |
7 | Gordon Shedden | Dynamics/Honda | Honda | 8.901s |
8 | James Cole | Team BMR | Subaru | 9.388s |
9 | Matt Neal | Dynamics/Honda | Honda | 10.792s |
10 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota | 11.765s |
11 | Jake Hill | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 12.176s |
12 | Tom Chilton | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 12.582s |
13 | Matt Simpson | Dynamics/Honda | Honda | 14.196s |
14 | Ollie Jackson | AmD Tuning | Audi | 14.501s |
15 | Rob Austin | Handy Motorsport | Toyota | 14.973s |
16 | Will Burns | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 15.297s |
17 | Chris Smiley | BTC Racing | Chevrolet | 15.708s |
18 | Michael Epps | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 16.136s |
19 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Racing | Mercedes | 19.505s |
20 | Dave Newsham | BTC Racing | Chevrolet | 22.651s |
21 | Ant Whorton-Eales | AmD Tuning | Audi | 22.981s |
22 | Martin Depper | Motorbase | Ford | 26.022s |
23 | Senna Proctor | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 26.354s |
24 | Jason Plato | Team BMR | Subaru | 26.820s |
25 | Stephen Jelley | Team Parker Racing | Ford | 27.230s |
26 | Josh Price | Team BMR | Subaru | 29.882s |
27 | Aron Taylor-Smith | Triple Eight/MG | MG | 32.587s |
28 | Josh Cook | Triple Eight/MG | MG | 1m25.152s |
29 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes | 1m27.008s |
- | Brett Smith | Eurotech Racing | Honda | Retirement |
- | Stewart Lines | Maximum Motorsport | Ford | Retirement |
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments