Ashley Sutton happy with qualifying effort at Oulton Park

Ash Sutton admitted that he ‘didn’t have four tenths’ in his back pocket but was nonetheless pleased to qualify in fourth for the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Oulton Park.

The NAPA Racing UK driver only just scraped through from his Q1 group on Saturday afternoon with the sixth fastest time in the first part of qualifying, before going quicker in Q2 and posting the second-best time, two tenths off the pace.

However, in the final ‘Quick Six’ session, Sutton was half a tenth slower than his best, putting his Ford Focus ST in fourth for the opening race, half a second adrift of title rival Tom Ingram.

Despite the time deficit, Sutton was pleased with his grid position, even though he felt there was still time on the table.

“I’m fairly happy with that if I’m honest,” said Sutton to TouringCars.Net. “Was the car perfect? Probably not. Was there a bit more in it? Yeah.

“You’ve got to take Ingram out of it to some extent, because that lap was pretty phenomenal. I’ve not got four tenths in my back pocket!

“The lap time jump for them from Q1 to Q3 was quite a substantial amount and we’ve not got that, unfortunately.

“But on race pace the car seems good – on a long run and on an older tyre. We’ll see what race day brings and what the weather does.”

Sutton is hoping that, with the hard option tyre back in play this weekend, that he can manage his weekend to not drop too far back around the notoriously-difficult-to-overtake-at Oulton Park circuit.

In 2024, the four-time champion held third on the hard tyre in race two, before dropping down when his wheel arch came loose and he had to pit.

“Last year, we didn’t actually drop that far back [on the hard tyre]. I know there was a bit of a melee at Turn 1, but I think you can survive a bit easier here because it’s quite a narrow circuit and quite hard to overtake.

“But we’ve also seen that once you get rattled back a few places there’s no stopping it. If there’s a train there then they’re all coming. Trying to recover that is nigh on impossible.

“You’ve got to play it very differently. Look at what we did at Brands where we played it in race one, at Snetterton your hand is forced if you have a good result in race one.

“Here, when you’re around the top five, do you go for a podium, do you not? What do you want to do with the hard tyre? How do you play your day?

“Sometimes you have to take the points. If Tom gets off the line cleanly and go for a race win then he’s taking the points isn’t he, he’s not going to sacrifice that for a hard tyre.

“It adds a different dynamic to it. It can help you claw your day back even if it’s not gone so well on a Saturday.”