Ash Sutton won the second British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Snetterton, the ballast-free Infiniti driver scything through from 11th on the grid on the softer tyre.
At the start it was race one winner Colin Turkington who led the field away in his BMW, as Ollie Jackson and Tom Ingam initially completed the podium placings.
Sutton made a strong start to gain four places on the opening lap, and on the following tour he was up to sixth after passing the BMW of Adam Morgan.
The next lap saw Sutton pick off two of his rivals when he dispatched the BMW of Stephen Jelley at Turn 2 before passing the Toyota of Rory Butcher just two corners later, the Scot not making life difficult for the reigning champion.
Early in the race Ingram had been pressuring Jackson for the final podium, and for two laps their battle continued, until on lap six Sutton passed Ingram at Turn 3 with relative ease.
Less than a lap later Sutton was through past Jackson, by which time his deficit to leader Turkington was just under three seconds.
It only took Sutton two laps to close the gap and pass Turkington at Agostini, the Northern Irishman in much less favourable conditions with the medium tyre and 75 kg more weight than Sutton.
Thereafter Sutton was able to open up a gap, although towards the end of the race Turkington threatened to come back but ran out of time.
Jackson held off Ingram’s attack to claim third, leaving the Excelr8 Motorsport driver to take fourth.
Butcher was again the best Toyota driver in fifth, ahead of a trio of BMW drivers, headed up by the Team BMW duo of Tom Oliphant and Stephen Jelley.
It will be Jelley who starts race three from the reverse grid pole after the top seven were drawn by Sutton to be reversed.
Adam Morgan brought his Ciceley Motorsport BMW home in eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by Team HARD’s Jack Goff and Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat, the latter having finished seventh on the road but demoted by a five-second time penalty for being out of position at the start.
Excelr8’s Chris Smiley was 11th, ahead of the leading Team Dynamics Honda of Gordon Shedden in 12th, the Scot continuing a gradual recovery after starting from the back in race one.
PMR’s Dan Lloyd was 13th after slipping back in the latter stages of the race on the medium compound tyre, with the points being completed by BTC Racing duo Senna Proctor and Josh Cook.
PMR’s Jason Plato had run as high as 14th but dropped back late in the race, despite the Vauxhall driver being on the softer tyre.
The only retirements were Ciceley’s Tom Chilton and Team HARD’s Glynn Geddie, who were both involved in incidents on the opening lap and picked up damage.
Race three is scheduled to get underway at 17:20 BST.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 1 | I |  |
Ashley SUTTON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 12 | 23:49.604 | 1:56.795 | 11 |
| 2 | 2 | M | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 0.451 | 1:57.438 | 1 |
| 3 | 48 | M | |
Ollie JACKSON | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 12 | 8.603 | 1:57.713 | 5 |
| 4 | 80 | I | |
Tom INGRAM | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 12 | 8.769 | 1:57.674 | 2 |
| 5 | 6 | M | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 12 | 10.524 | 1:57.919 | 3 |
| 6 | 15 | M | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 10.859 | 1:57.664 | 8 |
| 7 | 12 | M | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 12.065 | 1:57.863 | 4 |
| 8 | 33 | I | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 13.364 | 1:57.840 | 6 |
| 9 | 31 | I | |
Jack GOFF | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 13.662 | 1:57.823 | 12 |
| 10 | 16 | I | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 12 | 16.204 | 1:57.999 | 14 |
| 11 | 22 | I | |
Chris SMILEY | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 12 | 16.228 | 1:58.354 | 10 |
| 12 | 52 | I | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 16.577 | 1:58.595 | 15 |
| 13 | 123 | I | |
Daniel LLOYD | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 12 | 16.925 | 1:58.472 | 7 |
| 14 | 18 | I | |
Senna PROCTOR | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 17.295 | 1:58.706 | 18 |
| 15 | 66 | I | |
Josh COOK | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 18.605 | 1:58.692 | 16 |
| 16 | 32 | I | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 21.190 | 1:58.630 | 13 |
| 17 | 41 | I | |
Carl BOARDLEY | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 12 | 22.534 | 1:58.650 | 20 |
| 18 | 40 | I |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 26.536 | 1:59.144 | 22 |
| 19 | 4 | M | |
Sam OSBORNE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 12 | 26.720 | 1:58.885 | 19 |
| 20 | 11 | I | |
Jason PLATO | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 12 | 39.770 | 1:58.826 | 17 |
| 21 | 21 | M | |
Jessica HAWKINS | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 12 | 42.017 | 1:59.879 | 23 |
| 22 | 96 | I | |
Jack BUTEL | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 12 | 42.534 | 1:59.662 | 26 |
| 23 | 99 | I | |
Jade EDWARDS | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 42.734 | 1:59.765 | 25 |
| 24 | 24 | M | |
Jake HILL | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 12 | 44.681 | 1:57.452 | 9 |
| 25 | 28 | I | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 47.417 | 1:59.762 | 28 |
| 26 | 23 | M | |
Sam SMELT | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 12 | 48.429 | 1:59.957 | 29 |
| 27 | 62 | I | |
Rick PARFITT Jr | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 12 | 56.019 | 2:00.234 | 24 |
| R | 3 | I | |
Tom CHILTON | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 0 | DNF | N/A | 21 |
| R | 88 | I | |
Glynn GEDDIE | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 0 | DNF | N/A | 27 |