But this time Sutton had to fend off a stern challenge from reigning champion Tom Ingram, who ran him extremely close but could not prevent the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST squad from extending its 2023 pole wipeout to eight from eight.
Sutton substantially lowered Ingram’s provisional pole time as the session headed into the final 10 minutes with a seemingly unbeatable effort.
But with just a couple of minutes on the clock, Ingram set sail on a lap on which he set two purple sectors, but in the final sector lost 0.150 seconds compared to his earlier time.
Not far behind him on the track, Sutton was on a flier too – he went green in sector one, lowered Ingram’s best in the next portion of the lap, and completed the tour to grab pole by 0.182s.
That was despite Sutton being allowed just one second per lap of hybrid boost, compared to the three of Ingram.
“When Tom put his lap in, I thought I’ve got to dig deep here, but I didn’t realise the potential we had in the car,” said Sutton.
“No one’s had a clear run today, with the weather and the red flags in free practice. I’m so in tune with the car at the moment – the guys give me exactly what I need, and I’m in a good place.”
Ingram blamed himself for missing out on pole: “The car feels alive this weekend. It’s probably me getting excited but I feel I’ve got a car that can challenge for pole.
Source: Autosport