Ash Sutton admitted that the Knockhill weekend had been an “emotional rollercoaster” after seeing his BTCC title hopes take a hit following his exclusion from race two.

The Team BMR driver had come through from eighth on the grid to win race one and looked set to repeat the feat in race two before his Subaru Levorg failed the ride height test after the chequered flag had dropped.

Although he came from the back of the grid to take P8 in race three, the defending champion now finds himself more than 50 points down on Colin Turkington with six races to run and admitted it was disappointing to have missed an opportunity to make up ground on the leader.

“Its been an emotional rollercoaster,” he said. “It’s such a shame as I felt we could be going for three wins after race two and the car was carrying the ballast well. It was great combination with me, the car and this track and as Tom Ingram said, we were unstoppable.

“It’s so disappointing that we couldn’t maximise it but you don’t always get things you way. I wanted to try and claw back a point in race three so P8 is a different story and I’m really pleased with that, but at the same time I know things could have been so much different in terms of the points heading away from this weekend.”