Egor Orudzhev set pole position in TCR Russia’s last Qualifying
Egor Orduzhev set the pole position in the last Qualifying session of the 2021 TCR Russia championship. The LUKOIL Racing Team’s drove his Audi RS 3 LMS to complete a lap of the Sochi Autodrom in 2:18.618, beating the LADA Vesta of LADA Sport Rosneft’s Mikhail Mityaev.
Mityaev’s teammate, the reigining champion and current points leader Kirill Ladygin qualified a disappointing eighth, five places behind his only rival in the title fight, TAIF Motorsport Dmitry Bragin.
Pavel Kalmanovich set the pace in the early moments of the session, posting a lap of 2:19.519 in his AG Team CUPRA, but he was soon ousted by Orudzhev’s 2:19.449, while Artem Slutskiy placed his Carville Racing Hyundai I30 N in second position with a lap of 2:19.452.
Mityaev was the next one to jump to the top of the timesheet when he was clocked at 2:18.659, with Bragin second (2:19.208) and Kalmanovich third (2:19.303).
Then Oruzhev struck back with a lap of 2:18.618, while Artem Slutskiy improved to 2:19.117 moving into P3. Mityaev completed an even faster lap of 2:18.202 that was immediately disallowed for track limit infringements, although he remained in second position, while Bragin was the last one to improve, securing P3 on the grid for tomorrow’s Race 1 with a lap of 2:18.694.
Ladygin’s 2:19.577 means he will start from P8 on the grid; he has a leading margin of 29 points over Bragin, with 26 on offer in the first race.
Live streaming of both races will be Sunday at www.tcr-series.com; Race 1 at 11:45, Race 2 at 16:15 local times (09:45 and 14:15 CET).
Sochi - Qualifying
2:18.618 Egor Orudzhev (Lukoil Racing Team, Audi RS 3 LMS)
2:18:659 Mikhail Mityaev (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport)
2:18.694 Dmitry Bragin (TAIF Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS)
2:19.117 Artem Slutskiy (Carville Racing, Hyundai i30 N)
2:19.176 Grigory Burlutskiy (Carville Racing, Hyundai i30 N)
Championship points:
1. K. Ladygin 204 pts; 2. D. Bragin 173; 3. A. Maslennikov 151
Picture: Grigory Golyshev
