Ashley Sutton surprised the rest of the field at Donington by taking pole position with a new lap record.
The Subaru team had been hinting between Brands and Donington that rule changes would make them uncompetitive and in practice that appeared to be mostly true. But Sutton managed to set fastest lap not just once but twice, after his first effort was removed due to a track limits infringement. The resulting pole lap in the Adrian Flux sponsored Subaru Levorg was also a new lap record.6
Sutton seems to like Donington as it was the scene of his first ever BTCC pole last year in the MG6.
“It was just a case of piecing a lap together,” said Sutton. “We’ve managed to pick at the setup throughout practice and that was the first time we’d been out on new tyres. We hadn’t shown what we can do and we’ve hit the nail on the head when it mattered!
“We didn’t know what we were capable of but it paid off. You always arrive aiming to be on pole, so to achieve that is fantastic. The guys have worked hard, day and night, every day of the week. It’s nice to reward them with pole. We’ll kick on from here tomorrow with no weight on board and see what we can do.”
Handy Motorsport’s Rob Austin backed-up his first practice fastest time by joining Sutton the front row on the grid for tomorrow’s opener, just 0.102 seconds behind Sutton’s new 1:09.412s record.
“After going quickest in FP1, we knew we had the pace,” said Austin. “That also meant I put myself under a lot of pressure in qualifying – and to be truthful, I made a mess of it for the majority of the session! Thankfully we came good in the end.”
Jack Goff (Eurotech Racing), Tom Ingram (Speedworks Motorsport), Aiden Moffat (Laser Tools Racing) and Jake Hill (TAG Racing) make up the next four after also all showing great pace in the earlier sessions. Jack Goff was disappointed not to get pole after his fastest lap in the second session.
Goff’s team mate Jeff Smith successfully returned from Oulton Park to take eleventh. (He was 16th in the Minis at Oulton!)
The Halfords Yuasa Racing duo will line-up on the fourth row of the grid with Neal going quicker than his reigning champion team mate Gordon Shedden. Shedden will be pleased with his lap, though, as the championship leader set the time in his Honda Civic Type R around with maximum success ballast on board.
Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing’s Michael Epps took ninth, which continued his excellent run at Brands Hatch and in practice this morning whilst Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan completed the top ten order in his Mac Tools sponsored car.
It was a mixed session for a number of the BTCC’s usual front runners, Especially Colin Turkington. The Team BMW driver set a time good enough for a respectable twelfth on the grid, but his session ended early when a water leak started on his 125i M Sport. This brought about the only red flag period of the day as a number of cars spun off at the Old Hairpin, where Turkington’s BMW had dropped its water.
Aron Taylor Smith was the best of the MGs in thirteenth ending what has been a disappointing day for the team with Daniel Lloyd’s car all the way down in eighteenth. It seems a long way from their pole of last year.
Tom Chilton was fourteenth in the best of the Power Maxed Vauxhall Astras, just ahead of BMW’s Rob Collard. Andrew Jordan completes the top half of the field in his Pirtek sponsored sister machine.
A big crowd is expected to visit Donington Park tomorrow, with many, many more watching on ITV4. The three BTCC races are set to begin at 11:35, 14:35 and 17:20 respectively.
2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Qualifying – Donington Park
1 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing 1m09.412s (102.64mph)
2 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +0.102s
3 Jack GOFF (GBR) Eurotech Racing +0.143s
4 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +0.298s
5 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +0.316s
6 Jake HILL (GBR) TAG Racing +0.325s
7 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.341s
8 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.391s
9 Michael EPPS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +0.407s
10 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport +0.495s
11 Jeff SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +0.521s
12 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +0.527s
13 Aron TAYLOR-SMITH (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +0.545s
14 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +0.583s
15 Rob COLLARD (GBR) Team BMW +0.586s
16 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing +0.620s
17 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +0.630s
18 Daniel LLOYD (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +0.737s
19 Josh COOK (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +0.782s
20 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat with Duo +0.793s
21 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +0.799s
22 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +0.838s
23 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +0.878s
24 Dave NEWSHAM (IRL) BTC Norlin Racing +0.903s
25 James COLE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +0.983s
26 Will BURNS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +1.015s
27 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +1.080s
28 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +1.256s
29 Luke DAVENPORT (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +1.263s
30 Josh PRICE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +1.279s
31 Ant WHORTON-EALES (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +1.285s
32 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +1.296s By Marc Waller
