Gavrilov converts pole position into his first win
Klim Gavrilov took his first win of the season in TCR Russia at Nizhniy Novgorod, where he imposed his VRC Team Audi RS 3 LMS in a lights-to-flag demonstration, following the conquest of the pole position yesterday. The young driver beat the Hyundai i30 N cars of Ivan Lukashevich, who was a close second throughout the entire distance, and reigning champion Dmitry Bragin.
The race, contested in glorious weather, was much influenced by a collective accident at the first corner, which put out of contention a number of top players. Irek Minnakhmetov braked too late on the inside line and didn’t manage to turn, going straight and collecting various cars. The confusion caused other contacts in turn 2 among the back-markers. On top of Minnakhmetov’s Audi, the incident saw the cars of Mikhail Grachev, Pavel Yashin, Anton Badoev, Pavel Kalmanovich, Aleksey Dudukalo and Grigoriy Burlutskiy all stranded, with only the last two making it to the pits.
At the restart after the safety-car period, Gavrilov led ahead of Lukashevich, Kirill Ladygin, Andrej Maslennikov and Bragin, who climbed from the back and took fourth in lap 6 and third one lap later.
With eight laps to go, the three cars of Gavrilov, Lukashevich and Bragin were running very close together. The reigning champion would do a slight mistake in lap 14 and dropped to fifth behind Ladygin and Maslennikov.
This meant that Ladygin re-took the leadership in the standings, eight points clear of Bragin, while Gavrilov moved up to third, a further three points below.
The second race will start tomorrow at 16:10 local time (15:10 CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.tv.
Race 1
1. Klim Gavrilov (VRC Team, Audi RS 3 LMS), 18 laps
2. Ivan Lukashevich (Lukoil Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 2.604
3. Kirill Ladygin (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport), 5.183
4. Andrej Maslennikov (Lukoil Racing, SEAT León), 7.891
5. Dmitry Bragin (TAIF Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N), 8.308
Championship points
1. Ladygin 55 pts; 2. Bragin 47; 3. Gavrilov 44
