Ash Sutton: ‘I’ll take being in Q3 as a win’

Ash Sutton was pleased to continue his run of getting through to Q3 in every British Touring Car Championship qualifying session of 2024, as he put his NAPA Racing UK Ford in fifth for Sunday’s opening race at Thruxton.

Sutton qualified just over four tenths of a second from pole position and maintained his run of being the only driver to get into the ‘Quick Six’ session in every weekend this year.

The four-time champion was pleased with his performance, although he hinted that if conditions had been optimal he might have been able to qualify slightly higher.

“I’ll take getting into Q3 as a win,” said Sutton to TouringCars.Net. “I’m a bit confused with it, if I’m honest. We did a 1:15.6 [in practice] and there were a couple of tenths left in the car.

“I was quite happy with the car and everything was looking hunky-dory going into qualifying.

“Obviously, we all experience exactly the same thing, but the track changed massively in Q1, then slightly improved for Q2 and again for Q3, due to the sun coming out for the start of the session and the track temperature going up.

“We were trying to extract every last bit from the car in FP2 and were on the absolute limit, and suddenly when that grip level drops our car wasn’t right for those conditions.

“I would have liked more from it. But would it have really changed the result? I might have gained a place or two, which would have been a place or two closer to the front. But it’s still fifth and I’m still the only driver to make it through into all Q3 sessions so I’m happy.”

Sutton is predicting that overtaking will be improved this year due to the increased hybrid allocation drivers have compared to the 2023 season.

“In theory, in race one, as long as [Dan] Cammish gets off the line the same as [Tom] Ingram, the amount of hybrid he’s got more it should equate to him being able to overtake people.

“We’ve always seen this place being a bit ‘follow the leader’ and you get a bit stuck.

“I just hope it doesn’t make the race a stalemate like it was last year. I hope that the hybrid is now enough to create some good moves.

“For myself it’s about being consistency, and I think it will always be about consistency. If a win comes up then we’ll go for it. Maybe it’s a lack of pace or thinking about points, but we’ve not been in a position to fight for that win.

“We’ve got to focus on ourselves. We’re surrounded by cars with a lot of hybrid and we’ve only got one lap of it. We’ll just have to maximise that.”