![Ashley Sutton, NAPA Racing UK [Motorbase Performance], Ford Focus ST](https://www.touringcars.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/AshleySuttonNAPA.jpg "Photo: Pat Cranham")
Ash Sutton was relieved to end the opening British Touring Car Championship weekend of the season at Donington Park with a podium, admitting that he still has to get his head around returning to front-wheel drive.
Sutton showed strong single lap pace on Saturday, including being fastest of all in second practice, before qualifying his NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus in third for race one.
However, he fell back to fourth in the opening encounter, before then sliding further to sixth in the second race.
It was therefore a relief for Sutton to end the weekend with a podium in second in the reverse-grid race.
The reigning champion thus admitted that he and the Motorbase Performance-run team still have work to do in getting the most out of the front-wheel drive machine.
“Obviously there’s still improvements required, but that was definitely a step in the right direction,” Sutton told TouringCars.Net. “We’ve just got to get our head around this front-wheel drive thing, that’s all it is.
“Me and my engineer are fresh to a front-wheel drive car, so there’s a little bit of learning going on and unlocking what I like in the car, which tends to be a bit different from others.
“I’m pleased that we actually made some progress. Races one and two were kind of eating into me and the team a bit, so it’s nice to actually get something in the end.
“Our one lap pace is much better than our race pace, for sure; we’re a lot closer with our one-lap pace.
“On the race pace side of things, we just struggled with the balance. We didn’t predict enough with the temperature increase and what to expect, so we just kept throwing a lot of changes at it and trying to learn as quick as we can, because we don’t want to go to Brands with an issue.”
Sutton wouldn’t put his performance down to how he used the new Hybrid Energy Management [HEM] system, rather focussing on how he has adapted to returning to front-wheel drive after five years in rear-wheel drive kit.
“There are key bits of the hybrid that favour us and other bits that favour rear-wheel drive cars. In a race scenario there’s a couple of corners, like Coppice onto the back straight where we struggle to use hybrid.
“But I’m not going to sit here and complain about any of that until we’re 100% happy with the car.
“At the end of the day it’s my first race [weekend] in a front-wheel drive car for a long time.”