Ash Sutton storms from last to dominate BTCC opener at Donington Park
Ash Sutton delivers a remarkable comeback at Donington Park, turning a last-place start into a dominant British Touring Car Championship lead with the revamped Ford Focus
Four-time BTCC champion Ash Sutton was on familiar champagne duty at Donington, driving the Focus saloon (not a hatchback), below
BTCC
He ended Saturday’s new-for-2026 qualifying race in the gravel trap, which meant he started race one on Sunday from 21st and last on the grid. So how did Ash Sutton pick his way through to win the second and third races, and emerge from the British Touring Car Championship’s opening weekend at Donington Park with the series lead? ‘That old Sutton magic’ is probably the simple answer.
Sutton, the record-tying four-time champion, has a new weapon for 2026. Well, it’s not strictly new: the Alliance Racing team that runs the NAPA Ford Focuses has grafted a saloon rear end onto its old ST hatchback shells to create the Titanium model (you can buy one for the road in Turkey, if you’re interested). A better aero platform was the theory, and it certainly seems to have worked.
In qualifying, Sutton was 0.008sec adrift of reigning champion Tom Ingram’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai, and it was Ingram’s defence from the Ford in the qualifying race that sent it into the gravel. Sutton then stormed from the back of the grid to fourth on the road in race one, only to be promoted to second – firstly when Dan Rowbottom, who had taken a debut win for the new Plato Racing Mercedes team in the qualifying race, was penalised for track-limits offences; then when on-the-road victor Ingram was excluded for an overboosting infringement.
Sutton then made light work of winning race two from the front row, before battling his way from eighth on the reversed grid to victory in the finale. That was despite a significant shortfall of TTB power boost, which is the BTCC’s method of handicapping the winners of previous races.
“Twenty-four hours ago we were sat in the gravel trap, so to turn this around is awesome,” he summed up. “The car has been on fire, and we also got a first 1-2 of the season for NAPA Racing UK [ahead of team-mate Dan Cammish in race two], so it’s been incredible.”
With Ingram storming from the back to second, it looks like a familiar pair is set to fight out BTCC 2026.
Driver briefing notes
Palou powers on, while in the WRC Katsuta wins again
● Toyota won a battle of strategy with Ferrari to claim honours in the World Endurance Championship opener at Imola. Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sébastien Buemi were the winning trio in the Japanese marque’s 1-3, with Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado claiming second spot.
● Croatia Rally gave Toyota victory after a bizarre event ended with a second consecutive win for Takamoto Katsuta to follow his maiden success on the Safari. High attrition and a plague of punctures preceded leader Thierry Neuville throwing it all away when he crashed his Hyundai on the last stage.
● Two more IndyCar races; two more wins for Álex Palou, inset. At Barber Motorsports Park, he benefited when a sticking wheel at the final round of pitstops delayed pursuer Christian Lundgaard. At Long Beach, he won the race out of the pits after trailing Felix Rosenqvist for 58 of the 90 laps.