Sutton’s win was built upon a blistering first lap, in which he deprived first-race winner and poleman Colin Turkington of the lead at the Druids hairpin.
Tom Ingram was also on the move, and steamed up the inside of Jake Hill for third at Druids before slicing inside Turkington into Surtees to grab second place.
Sutton’s Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST instantly stamped in fastest lap on the second tour to extend the gap to 1.232 seconds, but then the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N of reigning champion Ingram began to close the gap.
By half-distance they were almost together, and as the race neared its final quarter Ingram made use of his extra hybrid allowance, but could never get the interval below 0.3s.
With five laps remaining the leading pair both had five laps of hybrid, and Sutton eased the gap out to win by 0.933s.
“We were just tyre-managing,” said Sutton. “I got the move on Colin done straight away.
“I knew Tom was hungry, but I managed it and we played the hybrid game until we had a level playing field, and then I cracked on at the end.”
Ingram professed that “I almost gave when I got to the five-lap mark because I knew the hybrid was the only way I was keeping up”.
Source: Autosport