Bragin wins in championship-changing rain-hit Race 1

Reigning champion Dmitry Bragin has won the first race of the day at the N Ring in his TAIF Motorsport Hyundai, overtaking early race leader Aleskey Dudukalo’s Audi in a race which saw many of the title contenders caught out by the tricky conditions.
Starting on a very damp circuit, the field mostly opted for wet tyres for the start, while points leader Kirill Ladygin decided to roll the dice and come in from eighth at the end of the formation lap and switch to slicks. The change cost the LADA Sport Rosneft driver significant time, as he was also held up behind the leading car as he came onto pit lane.
Dudukalo led the way from pole position in his LUKOIL Audi, while Bragin quickly moved ahead of Pavel Kalmanovich to take second at Turn 1, with Mikhail Mityaev moving up to third a few corners later.
As the cars started their third lap, the rain returned and was falling rather steadily at the track, with Ladygin’s gamble not paying off as he was still languishing in last place, a minute away from the rest of the pack.
At the start of lap four, Rustam Fatkhutdinov’s Audi lunged down the inside of Grigoriy Burlutskyi’s Hyundai to try and grab sixth, but the clumsy manoeuvre saw Fatkhutdinov going through the gravel trap, and Burlitskyi out with broken suspension, stranded at the exit to the corner, bringing out the safety car.
During the safety car period, Ivan Lukaschevich came in for repairs to his exhaust, which was damaged in an earlier incident with Andrej Radoshnov and dropped down the order.
The race resumed on lap eight, and Dudukalo controlled the pace, at least until the final few laps, when the LUKOIL driver’s pace began to fade, leaving him vulnerable to attack. With three laps to go, Bragin made a move down the inside at Turn 7 and took the lead, with Dudukalo demoted to second, which is where he would finish, with Mityaev completing the podium. Lukaschevich recovered from his earlier pit stop to finish in tenth, while Ladygin, on the wrong tyres, finished the race 14th and last.
Ladygin’s points lead over Dudukalo has now been decimated to just 13 points, with Ladygin on 165, Dudukalo on 152, and Bragin now right in the mix on 141.
Race 2 is due to start at 17:10 local time (16:10 CEST); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com. 

Race 1
1. Dmitry Bragin (TIF Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N), 18 laps
2. Aleksey Dudukalo (LUKOIL Racing Team, Audi RS 3 LMS), 3.315
3. Mikhail Mityaev (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport), 4.994
4. Pavel Kalmanovich (AG Team, CUPRA), 5.446
5. Andrej Maslennikov (LUKOIL Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N), 6.239

Championship points
1. Kirill Ladygin 165 pts; 2. Aleksey Dudukalo 152; 3. Dmitry Bragin 141

Picture: TCR Russia/Grigory Golyshev