Sutton leads Plato to clinch race two victory

Subaru's Ashley Sutton has maintained his recent rich vein of form after holding off a late charge from Jason Plato to win his fifth British Touring Car Championship race of 2017 at Knockhill.

The 23-year old started race two from second, but caught and passed his illustrious team mate on twelfth lap of the race to lead home a second successive Subaru 1-2 finish.

Despite the front-five getting away cleanly at the start of the race, the same couldn't be said for the chasing pack as contact between Andrew Jordan, Matt Neal and Senna Proctor provoked a multi-car pile-up on the exit of turn one.

Neal, Proctor and Tom Ingram arrived three abreast into Duffers Dip but it appears the BMW of Jordan misjudged his braking and ran into the back of Neal, which caused a chain-reaction as the rest of the pack arrived at the scene of the incident.

Proctor and Stephen Jelley suffered heavy damage from the resulting melee, while BMW Pirtek Racing's Jordan was unable to escape the gravel trap.

Following a lengthy stoppage, the grid reconvened for a second start where as the top-five enjoyed a mirror image getaway - led by the Subaru of Plato - the remainder of the field emerged from Duffers Dip unscathed.

Once again, Plato - now running the soft tyre - was able to settle into an early groove ahead of his BMR team mate Ashley Sutton as the Subarus quickly established a gap ahead of Colin Turkington and Rob Collard.

However, carrying the full complement of 75 kilos of ballast for the first time this year began to take its toll on Plato and Sutton moved his way past his team mate on the twelfth lap of the race.

Having dispatched Plato, Sutton immediately set a series of purple sectors as put clear air himself and the second placed Plato.

But after a relatively quiet handful of laps, Plato regrouped and set a blistering sequence of laps to close back in on the leading Subaru. The 96 time race winner almost manufactured a gap past Sutton, but the latter managed to hold on following a grandstand final lap.

Team BMW's Colin Turkington once again completed the rostrum order in third to consolidate his position at the top of the drivers' championship.

Rob Collard and James Cole rounded out the top-five placings while reigning champion Gordon Shedden rose back up the order to claim sixth ahead of his fellow compatriot Dave Newsham.

Subaru's Josh Price arguably created the greatest degree of excitement in race two after scintillating charge from the rookie saw him leap from 18th to eighth.

Price's rise up the order didn't come without controversy, however, as contact between himself and Honda's Matt Neal saw the latter end his race in the gravel trap.