A Lukoil Racing’s clean sweep in Sochi Qualifying

Lukoil Racing drivers made a clean sweep in the Qualifying for TCR Russia’s finale at Sochi. Ivan Lukashevich claimed pole position from Aleksey Dudukalo and Andrej Maslennikov. Klim Gavrilov was the best placed of the three title contenders, in fourth position, well ahead of Kirill Ladygin (8^th) and Dmitri Bragin (10^th).
Lukashevich had already set the fastest lap in Q1 ahead of Maslennikov and Gavrilov, while Ladygin and Bragin had made the cut for Q2 by the skin of their teeth in 9^th and 10^th position respectively.
Gavrilov was the first driver to break the 2:20 wall with a provisional fastest lap of 2:19.925, but that was improved by Maslennikov’s 2:19.752 and then Lukashevich’s 2:19.329. Anton Badoev was fourth fastest (2:20.010) followed by Dudukalo, Mikhail Mityaev, Pavel Kalmanovich and Grigoriy Burlutskiy. Bragin ranked as high as 7^th, but eventually dropped to tenth and was the last one to qualify for Q2, only seven hundredths of a second faster than Anton Nemkin.  
In Q2 the Lukoil Racing trio settled the matter on their first lap with Lukashevich the fastest once again from Dudukalo and Maslennikov. Gavrilov was able to set the fourth fastest lap on his second attempt, while Kalmanovich was the last one to improve, moving into fifth. Ladygin posted the eighth fastest lap (2:20.984) behind his LADA Sport teammate Mityaev, while Bragin ranked a disappointing tenth as his Hyundai car was slowed by a broken splitter.
The first race will start tomorrow at 14:55 local time (13:55 CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.    

Qualifying
1. 2:19.269 – Ivan Lukashevich (Lukoil Racing, Hyundai i30 N)
2. 2:19.299 – Akeksey Dudukalo (Lukoil Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)
3. 2:19.612 – Andrej Maslennikov (Lukoil Racing, CUPRA)
4. 2:19.655 – Klim Gavrilov (VRC Team, Audi RS 3 LMS)
5. 2:19.956 – Pavel Kalmanovich (TAIF Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS)

Championship points
1. Bragin 191 pts; 2. Ladygin 176; 3. Gavrilov 173