The three-time champion demolished his opposition at the wheel of his Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus ST to lead a team 1-2 from Dan Cammish by 0.666 seconds.
Even Sutton's second-best time was a quarter of a second clear of championship leader Cammish, with most of the leading times set in the opening 35-minute session.
Cammish bounced to the top of the times in the lunchtime period of running, with another 1-2 for the NAPA Racing-liveried Focuses completed by Dan Rowbottom, who was a mere 0.043s adrift.
But Cammish's best in that session was the best part of a second slower than Sutton's earlier mark, and didn't match his own best from the first period either.
Like Cammish, reigning champion Tom Ingram set his best lap of the morning period on the final tour to move his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N into third position.
Fourth fastest was the leading West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport – on a circuit where the rear-wheel-drive machines dominated in 2022, albeit in considerably hotter conditions, Jake Hill led the squadron in fourth place.
On a weekend where all the drivers must use each of the three tyre compounds – soft, medium and hard – in one race apiece, Aron Taylor-Smith was fifth quickest on the soft Goodyears in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra.
Rowbottom was one of the few to improve in the second session – his time was good for sixth overall.
Snetterton maestro Colin Turkington is in the mix and took seventh place overall – sixth in the morning – in his WSR BMW ahead of the second of the PMR Vauxhalls, this one in the hands of BTCC rookie Andrew Watson.
Continuing the impressive form of the Motorbase Fords was Sam Osborne. He made it four Focuses in the top five in the second session – behind Cammish, Rowbottom, Hill and Sutton – with a time that was good enough for ninth overall.
Another to improve in the second session was sixth-placed Josh Cook, whose BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R slotted into 10th place overall.
There were few incidents – Nick Halstead missed the first session due to a precautionary engine change for his Excelr8 Hyundai, while Bobby Thompson skipped the second while a new motor is installed in his Team Hard Cupra Leon.
FP1
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ashley Sutton |
11 | 1'54.952 | ||
| 2 | Dan Cammish |
11 | 1'55.618 | 0.666 | |
| 3 | Tom Ingram |
10 | 1'55.629 | 0.677 | |
| 4 | Jake Hill |
13 | 1'55.777 | 0.825 | |
| 5 |  Aron Taylor-Smith |
13 | 1'55.841 | 0.889 | |
| 6 | Colin Turkington |
14 | 1'56.035 | 1.083 | |
| 7 | Andrew Watson |
12 | 1'56.063 | 1.111 | |
| 8 | Tom Chilton |
12 | 1'56.376 | 1.424 | |
| 9 | Stephen Jelley |
14 | 1'56.514 | 1.562 | |
| 10 | Daniel Rowbottom |
13 | 1'56.525 | 1.573 | |
| 11 | Ricky Collard |
12 | 1'56.593 | 1.641 | |
| 12 | Rory Butcher |
11 | 1'56.599 | 1.647 | |
| 13 | Adam Morgan |
11 | 1'56.788 | 1.836 | |
| 14 | Josh Cook |
9 | 1'56.849 | 1.897 | |
| 15 | Daniel Lloyd |
8 | 1'56.898 | 1.946 | |
| 16 | Ronan Pearson | 13 | 1'56.902 | 1.950 | |
| 17 | George Gamble | 13 | 1'56.903 | 1.951 | |
| 18 | Bobby Thompson | 10 | 1'57.035 | 2.083 | |
| 19 | Mikey Doble | 12 | 1'57.202 | 2.250 | |
| 20 | Aiden Moffat |
12 | 1'57.208 | 2.256 | |
| 21 | Sam Osborne |
11 | 1'57.496 | 2.544 | |
| 22 | Dexter Patterson | 13 | 1'57.514 | 2.562 | |
| 23 | Jack Butel | 13 | 1'58.406 | 3.454 | |
| 24 | Will Powell | 12 | 1'58.840 | 3.888 | |
| 25 | Jade Edwards | 10 | 1'59.900 | 4.948 | |
| 26 | Nicolas Hamilton | 9 | 2'00.425 | 5.473 | |
| View full results | |||||
FP2
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dan Cammish |
13 | 1'55.814 | ||
| 2 | Daniel Rowbottom |
14 | 1'55.857 | 0.043 | |
| 3 | Jake Hill |
14 | 1'55.921 | 0.107 | |
| 4 | Ashley Sutton |
13 | 1'56.118 | 0.304 | |
| 5 | Sam Osborne |
12 | 1'56.120 | 0.306 | |
| 6 | Josh Cook |
11 | 1'56.150 | 0.336 | |
| 7 | Tom Chilton |
13 | 1'56.320 | 0.506 | |
| 8 | Stephen Jelley |
16 | 1'56.322 | 0.508 | |
| 9 | Tom Ingram |
10 | 1'56.337 | 0.523 | |
| 10 | Colin Turkington |
14 | 1'56.391 | 0.577 | |
| 11 | Ricky Collard |
12 | 1'56.559 | 0.745 | |
| 12 | Adam Morgan |
11 | 1'56.604 | 0.790 | |
| 13 | Aiden Moffat |
13 | 1'56.635 | 0.821 | |
| 14 | Aron Taylor-Smith |
14 | 1'56.700 | 0.886 | |
| 15 | Andrew Watson |
14 | 1'56.752 | 0.938 | |
| 16 | Rory Butcher |
10 | 1'56.761 | 0.947 | |
| 17 | Mikey Doble | 13 | 1'57.079 | 1.265 | |
| 18 | Daniel Lloyd |
9 | 1'57.230 | 1.416 | |
| 19 | Ronan Pearson | 14 | 1'57.454 | 1.640 | |
| 20 | George Gamble | 12 | 1'57.583 | 1.769 | |
| 21 | Dexter Patterson | 14 | 1'57.711 | 1.897 | |
| 22 | Will Powell | 9 | 1'58.636 | 2.822 | |
| 23 | Nicolas Hamilton | 12 | 1'58.743 | 2.929 | |
| 24 | Jade Edwards | 9 | 1'58.913 | 3.099 | |
| 25 | Jack Butel | 12 | 1'58.990 | 3.176 | |
| 26 | Nick Halstead | 11 | 2'01.871 | 6.057 | |
| View full results | |||||
