Sutton’s win was built upon a blistering first lap, in which he deprived first-race winner and poleman Colin Turkington of the lead at the Druids hairpin.
Tom Ingram was also on the move, and steamed up the inside of Jake Hill for third at Druids before slicing inside Turkington into Surtees to grab second place.
Sutton’s Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST instantly stamped in fastest lap on the second tour to extend the gap to 1.232 seconds, but then the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N of reigning champion Ingram began to close the gap.
By half-distance they were almost together, and as the race neared its final quarter Ingram made use of his extra hybrid allowance, but could never get the interval below 0.3s.
With five laps remaining the leading pair both had five laps of hybrid, and Sutton eased the gap out to win by 0.933s.
“We were just tyre-managing,” said Sutton. “I got the move on Colin done straight away.
“I knew Tom was hungry, but I managed it and we played the hybrid game until we had a level playing field, and then I cracked on at the end.”
Ingram professed that “I almost gave when I got to the five-lap mark because I knew the hybrid was the only way I was keeping up”.
With all of the top 11 on the grid opting for the regular medium Goodyear tyre in this race, Turkington found his West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport less effective a weapon than on the softer rubber earlier on, but picked up his second podium of the day with a solid third.
Championship leader Dan Cammish held fourth in his Motorbase Ford from the WSR BMW of Jake Hill, before on the 15th lap Hill made it through on the inside at the Druids hairpin.
Rory Butcher was a distant sixth in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla, but had some epic warfare going on his mirrors.
Team-mate Ricky Collard shadowed the Scot for most of the race, but came under pressure on the final lap from the Motorbase Ford of Sam Osborne, who was on the soft option tyre.
Contact was made at Clearways, sending Collard wide and allowing Josh Cook to grab seventh spot in his One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R from Osborne, George Gamble (Speedworks Toyota) and Collard.
But Osborne was penalised for the manoeuvre, demoting him to 10th behind eighth-placed Gamble and Collard in ninth.
Bobby Thompson finished 11th in his Team Hard Cupra Leon and then got drawn on reversed-grid pole.
BTCC Brands Hatch Race 2 results (24 laps):
| Cla | Driver | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 Ashley Sutton |
|
| 2 |
Tom Ingram |
0.933 |
| 3 |
Colin Turkington |
3.405 |
| 4 |
Jake Hill |
6.859 |
| 5 |
Dan Cammish |
10.598 |
| 6 |
Rory Butcher |
12.383 |
| 7 |
Josh Cook |
13.912 |
| 8 |
Sam Osborne |
14.168 |
| 9 | George Gamble | 14.238 |
| 10 |
Ricky Collard |
14.350 |
| 11 | Bobby Thompson | 15.087 |
| 12 |
Tom Chilton |
16.152 |
| 13 | Ronan Pearson | 16.659 |
| 14 |
Daniel Lloyd |
22.151 |
| 15 |
Daniel Rowbottom |
22.994 |
| 16 |
Adam Morgan |
23.277 |
| 17 | Dexter Patterson | 27.380 |
| 18 | Mikey Doble | 28.468 |
| 19 |
Aiden Moffat |
30.295 |
| 20 | Will Powell | 30.675 |
| 21 |
Andrew Watson |
34.698 |
| 22 | Jade Edwards | 36.648 |
| 23 | Nick Halstead | 50.101 |
| 24 | Jack Butel | |
| 25 | Nicolas Hamilton | |
 Aron Taylor-Smith |
||
|
Stephen Jelley |
||
| View full results | ||
