Outgoing champion Sutton tops FP1 at Brands Hatch

Subaru's Ashley Sutton has topped the first British Touring Car Championship practice session of the final weekend of the 2018 season ahead of Andrew Jordan at Brands Hatch.

The outgoing champion clocked a 1 minute 31.090s lap during the opening 40-minute running to place his Subaru Levorg at the top of the timesheets, 0.126s quicker than the West Surrey Racing BMW of Jordan in second.

Sutton fell out of mathematical contention of defending his own championship crown last time out at Silverstone, but the BMR driver still has an outside chance of claiming second in standings, albeit 39-points back from Tom Ingram.

Jack Goff completed the FP1 top-three order for WIX Racing ahead of Motorbase Performance's Tom Chilton in fourth.

Chilton emerged from the opening session as the highest place title contender. The Ford Focus RS driver has a slim chance of taking the overall drivers' crown in third position, but would need to overhaul a 64-point deficit to Colin Turkington, with just 67 left to play for.

Adam Morgan was fifth fastest aboard his Mac Tools Racing Mercedes A-Class machine, while the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis of Ingram was sixth following the first session.

Ingram must claw back a 34-point deficit to stand any chance of snatching the crown from double champion Turkington, who ended FP1 15th fastest ahead of Jason Plato.

Matt Neal was seventh fastest ahead of his factory Honda team mate Dan Cammish in eighth, as Chris Smiley and Mike Bushell completed the remainder of the top-ten.