Ash Sutton admits ‘miscommunication’ cost him shot at Q3

Ash Sutton believes he could have qualified higher up at Donington Park, but for a miscommunication which saw him miss the opportunity to make the most of the changeable conditions in qualifying.

Sutton put his Ford Focus in tenth on the grid for the opening British Touring Car Championship race on Sunday, after failing to progress beyond Q2 for the third event in a row.

The four-time champion put wet tyres on at the start of Q2, but before he had posted a ‘banker lap’ the NAPA Racing UK driver pitted to change to slicks whilst his main rivals were already lapping on slick rubber in increasingly wet conditions.

That meant that by the time Sutton had got his tyres up to temperature for a flying lap the conditions had worsened to the point that he went slower than he had done on wet rubber, on which he failed to complete a whole flying lap.

“It was a mis-comms internally,” explained Sutton to TouringCars.Net. “Ultimately, we chose to go on the wet tyre at the start of Q2, which at the time probably wasn’t a bad call.

“I think if we had completed the lap, which we should have done, we would have made it through – the track conditions only got worse.

“I got a call over the radio to box and put slicks on based on what people were doing sector-wise. Up to that point we were only three tenths down and sector three was still wetter, so it would have paid off staying on the wets and at least getting one lap on the board. That probably would have got us through.

“It’s frustrating, but ultimately we’ve had our fair share of both good and bad luck. It’s a bit of a kick in the nuts, I won’t lie, but it just makes race day a bit more interesting.

“We seem to always have a good race car – we’ve just been lacking a bit of qualifying pace. Today it feels like we had a good car for qualifying, or at least to be a bit further towards the sharp end, so we’re a bit miffed the fact that we’ve not been able to show that.

“Hopefully the car is still as good as it has been on a race day and we can move forward.”