BTCC: Sutton storms to sensational Thruxton BTCC pole
![Ashley Sutton - NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus](https://cdn.crash.net/styles/article/s3/pa/3339417.0003.jpg?itok=0ZzxDklQ)
British Touring Car Championship points leader Ash Sutton defied the practice formbook to take pole position ahead of defending champion Tom Ingram in qualifying at Thruxton.
Having dominated the practice running earlier in the day, Josh Cook headed into qualifying as the firm favourite to secure the top-spot. However, Sutton maintained his rampant run of form to snatch his second pole position in succession.
The three-time BTCC champion was the first of the front-runners to set a representative time during the first sequence of runs and led the timesheets before briefly losing the top-spot to One Motorsport's Cook later in the running.
However, Sutton responded in style and produced a 1'15.489s lap, putting the NAPA Racing UK Ford driver over 0.2s ahead of the rest of the field.
The Ford Focus ST driver threatened to go even faster late in the session, but his final flyer was curtailed by a late red-flag with just two-minutes to go.
Ingram qualified his EXCELR8 Motorsport Hyundai i30N onto the front-row, demoting Cook's Honda Civic Type-R a position further down the order to third.
Cook shares the second-row with the surprise effort of Power Maxed Racing's Mikey Doble, who propelled his Vauxhall Astra up to the fourth in the timesheets.
Laser Tools Racing's Jake Hill and Team BMW's Colin Turkington comprise an all BMW third-row in fifth and sixth, ahead of an all Vauxhall fourth-row with Aron Taylor-Smith and Andrew Watson capping off a strong result for the Power Maxed Racing squad in seventh and eighth.
NAPA Racing UK's Dan Cammish and Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Rory Butcher completed the top-ten qualifying order in ninth and tenth.