Bragin wins a chaotic Race 1 at Moscow Raceway

Dmitry Bragin scored a crucial victory in his effort to retain the TCR Russia title; the TAIF Motorsport driver kept cool in changeable weather conditions that affected Race 1 at the Moscow Raceway and stretched his leading margin in the standings to 21 points over Klim Gavrilov and 27 ahead of Kirill Ladygin.
At the start, pole sitter Andrej Maslenikkov and Gavrilov made contact at T1; Gavrilov spun, forcing Aleksey Dudukalo to run wide in avoidance, while Bragin seized the chance and took the lead from Maslennikov, Grigoriy Burlutskiy, Ladygin, Ivan Lukashevich and Pavel Kalmanovich.
As the rain began to fall, Burlutskiy and Ladygin fought for the third place and passed each other several times until Ladygin pitted for rain tyres on lap 4; at the same time Maslennikov, Burlutskiy, Ivan Chubarov and Anton Badoev lost grip and went straight at the last turn.
As the rain intensified, the safety car was deployed for two laps. When racing resumed on lap 7, Bragin, Kalmanovich and Lukashevich formed the leading trio, all of them still on slicks, while Gavrilov and Ladygin were trying to recover having switched to rain tyres.
For a couple of laps, Bragin and Kalmanovich swapped positions several times, while Lukashevich was following them, but on lap 10 Kalmanovich made a mistake and so Bragin retook the lead and pulled away. The rain eased in the final laps and so Bragin took his second victory of the season, while Kalmanovich beat Lukashevich in the final sprint for the second place. Ibragim Akhmadov finished fourth – his best result so far in the series – and Ladygin overtook Gavrilov for fifth during the final lap.  
The second race will start tomorrow at 12:55 local time (11:55 CET) with Burlutskiy on pole and Mikhail Mityaev alongside him; live streaming at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.

Race 1
1. Dmitry Bragin (TAIF Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N), 13 laps
2. Pavel Kalmanovich (TAIF Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 5.398
3. Ivan Lukashevich (Lukoil Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 5.724
4. Ibragim Akhmadov (Akhmat Racing Team, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 19.518
5. Kirill Ladygin (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport), 44.224

Championship points

1. Bragin 178 pts; 2. Gavrilov 157; 3. Ladygin 151