The three-time champion wrung all the pieces out of himself and his Motorbase Efficiency-run Ford Focus ST within the Q2 top-10 shootout to pip the One Motorsport Honda Civic Sort R of Josh {Cook} by 0.006 seconds.
Qualifying had began on a moist observe with your entire subject on grooved tyres, however on the midway level former World Touring Automobile champion Rob Huff was the primary to emerge on the soft-compound slick Goodyears, and the crossover level quickly emerged.
The One Motorsport Hondas had rapidly emulated Huff, with {Cook} and Aiden Moffat taking turns on the high of the instances.
However situations have been nonetheless tough, as Thruxton poleman Dan Cammish discovered his Motorbase Ford snapping off the highway at Butchers whereas he sat on provisional pole.
The injury from his journey throughout the grass sidelined him for the rest of the session, dropping him to twenty third within the last order.
An off for Stephen Jelley’s West Surrey Racing BMW in the identical neighborhood brought about a crimson flag in the course of the last minute, and the clock was reset to 5 minutes remaining.
Rory Butcher and his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla have been quickest at this stage, however he failed to enhance in the course of the last 5 minutes and fell to sixth.
{Cook} set the quickest time, however this was deleted for a track-limits transgression so it was Jake Hill and his WSR BMW that lastly topped Q1, 0.090 seconds away from {Cook}’s quickest authorized effort.
A flapping entrance splitter on Hill’s BMW betrayed an off earlier within the session that ripped off the ground, so he counted himself lucky to have the ability to get again into the fray.
{Cook}, with 11 seconds of hybrid per lap accessible to him at a minimal of 125km/h, regarded good for pole as Q2 entered its closing phases.
However Sutton, with the minimal 1s hybrid at 135km/h, pulled off a elegant effort to maintain up the NAPA-liveried Fords’ run of each single pole place in 2023 – the Focuses now on seven out of seven.
{Cook} missed out on pole by 0.006s to Sutton
Picture by: Motorsport Images
“This automobile is phenomenal on the delicate tyre, and I simply needed to dig deep, and I did precisely that,” mentioned Sutton.
“By way of the chicane it was an entire opposite-lock, typical Ash Sutton job.
“It’s been a little bit of a tough day – we had a damper problem in FP2, which restricted our operating, so to roll it out and get it on the entrance row is only a mega job.”
Whereas {Cook}’s sector instances put him on pole on theoretical bests, Hill was additionally shut at hand – on 7s/130km/h of hybrid he certified third, simply 0.029s away from Sutton.
Butcher was fourth on his residence floor, on the complete 15s/115km/h of hybrid, whereas reigning champion Tom Ingram took fifth in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N, on 3s/135km/h hybrid.
Adam Morgan confirmed nicely to finish up sixth, separated from his WSR BMW team-mate Colin Turkington by Moffat.
It was a low-key exhibiting from Turkington, who was near the bubble within the closing phases of Q1 on 5s/135km/h hybrid – each he and Moffat had moments within the gravel within the Q2 shootout.
Tom Chilton celebrated clambering again into Q2 after dropping out late in Q1 by claiming ninth in his Excelr8 Hyundai, with Dan Lloyd and his Staff Laborious Cupra Leon finishing the highest 10.