Despite running the medium ‘prime’ tyre, Sutton’s Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST cruised away from the soft-shod West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sports of Colin Turkington and Hill in the opening stages.
But once Hill got through to second place, the gap was slashed and Sutton had to defend every corner perfectly in the final couple of miles to take the victory.
While Sutton made a good start, front-row partner Tom Ingram was slow away in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N, and was then shuffled wide at the Wilson hairpin to drop to sixth.
Sutton led by 2.264 seconds at the end of the opening lap from Turkington, and built that to beyond 3s after three laps.
Turkington began trimming the gap, but in turn had Hill and Ingram – now back up to fourth – gaining on him by the halfway point of the race.
Turkington had to defend for a while, allowing Sutton to build his margin once more, before the race appeared to stabilise once again.
Then Hill homed in on Turkington once more, and on the ninth lap of 12 he drew alongside the four-time champion on the back straight.
Hill had two wheels forced onto the grass as they ran side by side, but kept his foot in and swept around the outside of the sister BMW into the esses to wrest second position.
Source: Autosport