Ashley Sutton claimed his second Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship pole position of the season by a mere 0.003s at Silverstone.
Last year’s Renault UK Clio Cup champion had already claimed a maiden BTCC pole as early as the second meeting of his rookie season at Donington, a feat he repeated in Saturday’s qualifying session at Silverstone’s national circuit.
The Triple Eight driver’s ultimate best lap of 58.321s demoted Adam Morgan‘s Mercedes A-Class from the top spot in the early stages of the 30-minute session, a time which would not be bettered.
Sutton also had to endure a five-minute dash following a red flag stoppage, brought upon by Mark Howard who beached his Team BKR Volkswagen CC in the gravel at Copse.
Behind Sutton and Ingram, Josh Cook made it two MGs in the top three ahead of Andrew Jordan‘s Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST, Morgan rounding out the top five.
Rob Austin enjoyed a fine qualifying session for Handy Motorsport in sixth, Matt Neal qualifying best of the championship contenders in seventh for Halfords Yuasa Racing after utilising the slipstream with team-mate Gordon Shedden for much of the session.
Hunter Abbott again qualified well in eighth, the top 10 rounded out by Aron Smith and the second Honda Civic Type-R of Shedden.
Contact between West Surrey Racing‘s Sam Tordoff and Rob Collard saw both pointing the wrong way at Luffield, the latter finishing 15th while championship leader Tordoff qualified 17th.
Another title contender, Mat Jackson, could only qualify 21st on the grid, Colin Turkington falling to the back of the grid from 15th after his penalties from Rockingham.
