Ash Sutton moved a step closer to a record-breaking fifth British Touring Car Championship title with a controlled drive to victory on the hard tyre at Croft.

Sutton went around the outside of race one winner Josh Cook on the run to Tower bend on the opening lap, authoritatively seizing the lead, as the Toyota driver then acted as a cork-in-the-bottle to the chasing cars over the following three laps.

By the time Tom Ingram boosted past Cook on the run to Tower on lap four, Sutton had extended a lead of over three seconds to the next car.

With the top three finishers from race one – Cook, Sutton and Ingram – all starting on the slower hard tyre, it seemed to be all bar Sutton who were struggling with the grip of the compound.

As Cook found himself scrapping to hold on to places, including tangling with WSR’s Daryl De Leon at the complex on lap four, Ingram too was struggling for pace.

On lap seven, CPRL’s Daniel Rowbottom – who had gained three places in one lap thanks to Cook’s earlier incident with De Leon, boosted past Ingram on the run to Tower, with Ingram also letting his Team VERTU team-mate Ricky Collard into third at the hairpin moments later.

That left Ingram vulnerable to NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish. On lap eight, Cammish attempted to take fourth at Sunny Out, but slight contact knocked Ingram wide onto the wet grass and he crashed into the barriers and out of the race.

Sutton, meanwhile, continued to extend his lead over the soft-shod drivers behind, despite both a tyre and boost disadvantage.

Whilst his cause was aided by later five-second track limit exceedances time penalties for both Rowbottom and Collard – which ultimately didn’t affect their finishing position – Sutton had enough in the bag to authoritatively claim his 55th career win in the BTCC.

Rowbottom brought his Mercedes home in second, whilst Collard completed the podium a second further back.

Cammish came home in fourth, with WSR’s Charles Rainford the leading Independent in fifth.

Laser Tools Racing’s Gordon Shedden was the top Toyota driver in sixth, ahead of Restart Racing’s Daniel Lloyd in seventh – the score for the latter bringing him back into a positive points tally after an earlier engine change deduction dropped him into the red.

Team VERTU’s Tom Chilton and Power Maxed Racing duo Aiden Moffat and Mikey Doble completed the top ten – the latter two also securing the front-row for the final reverse-grid race after the top ten were drawn to be reversed. For Moffat, who had crossed the finish line in sixth before a five-second penalty was imposed for exceeding track limits, his punishment could potentially be seen as fortuitous as it boosts his grid position for the finale.