Reigning champion Ash Sutton was left disappointed after what he described as a “write-off weekend” at Silverstone, after his British Touring Car Championship title defence came to an end.
After fighting back into the title hunt at Knockhill despite an exclusion in race two, Sutton endured a torrid weekend at Silverstone after multiple issues made it very difficult to score solid points.
The Team BMR racer struggled with an engine issue in qualifying, lining up 25th for race one in which he progressed through to finish 11th.
A better opportunity to score points in the second contest was denied to Sutton pre-race as a mistake in the garage caused a punctured wooden floor, meaning he started from the back of the grid.
Another pit stop at the end of the warm-up lap hindered any chance of climbing positions in the safety car-free second encounter.
He fought back to 12th in the final race of the weekend, but now is 73 points adrift of standings leader Colin Turkington, meaning the best he can mathematically achieve is second in the championship heading into the Brands Hatch finale.
“It’s a write-off weekend – it’s ruined the championship,” Sutton told TouringCars.Net. “There isn’t much more to comment on to be honest, all weekend we’ve struggled.
“We’ve not found the window that we wanted so that’s it, it’s done and dusted.
“We’ve just got to go there [Brands Hatch] and enjoy it, and try to come away with the most race wins of the year.”
Sutton is keen to boost morale in the team, and aims to finish the season with the most victories of any driver, after scoring five so far in 2018.
“We’re going to try to pick the spirits up in the team because obviously it’s a bit of a shame for everyone because we can’t quite defend the title into the last round,” said Sutton.
“But yeah we’re going to go for the most race wins, so at least we can say we’ve clawed that one back.”