Moffett wins Brands Hatch BTCC qualifying race

Aiden Moffat will start the first of the three races of the final day of the British Touring Car Championship season from pole position after triumphing in Saturday’s Race To Pole at on the Brands Hatch GP circuit.

The LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing driver – winner of Race 1 at Silverstone – topped timed qualifying and was then was largely unchallenged throughout the 10-lap contest after making a clean getaway from the grid and went on to win by 0.504s.

Second-placed starter Josh Cook also got away from the grid initially, but ran deep into Druids on the opening lap and shipped positions to Team VERTU pair Ricky Collard and Tom Ingram. Collard then dropped from second on lap 3 when his Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance snapped at Paddock Hill Bend. He caught the slide but ended up traversing the gravel, emerging down in sixth. That left Ingram in second, and despite a boost deficit as a result of his championship position, he ran largely on his own for the first half of the race until Cook began to chip away at his advantage.

By the penultimate lap Corolla Racing UK driver Cook’s gap to Ingram had shrunk to within 0.6s, while the battle hadn’t stopped the pair’s push for the front, with both slicing down Moffat’s lead which had stood at over a second after the first few laps. Despite the late charges, the trio held their positions, meaning Ingram will join Moffat on the front row for Race 1 on Sunday, with Cook third.

Mikey Doble recovered from a poor start from third on the grid to finish fourth in the other LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing Audi. At the halfway point in the race he was applying the pressure on newly annointed five-time champion Ash Sutton – whose car is sporting a one-off NASCAR-inspired livery this weekend and has changed his race number from No. 116 to No. 5 this weekend to mark his memorable achievement – and when Sutton ran deep at Surtees on lap 6, Doble took his chance to breeze by on the boost through Pilgrims Drop.

That also brought Collard into play and on lap 7 Collard got up the inside of Sutton on the exit of Hawthorns. Sutton's defense led to Collard briefly dipping two wheels onto the grass and while the returning Team VERTU driver did make the move stick momentarily, he ran wide at Westfield allowing Sutton to retake the place once again. However, despite finishing fifth on the road, Sutton was given a track limits penalty, locking in fifth for Collard.

Daryl de Leon was sixth for WSR, ahead of Dan Rowbottom, having snuck by the CPRL driver at Sheene Curve when both closed in the battling Sutton and Collard.

Aron Taylor-Smith wound up eighth for Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport, with Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing's Dexter Patterson and NAPA Racing UK's Dan Cammish rounding out the top-10. After his penalty, Sutton was classified 11th, behind his NAPA Racing UK teammate.

• All races air live on RACER Network and/or the RACER+ App. Click here for this week’s TV times.

QUALIFYING TIMES

QUALIFYING RACE RESULTS