Gavrilov steals victory from Dudukalo in Race 1

Klim Gavrilov claimed his maiden victory of the season in TCR Russia, as he won the first race at Kazan Ring. The VRC-Team’s driver chased Aleksey Dudukalo for most of the race and eventually overtook him during the final lap. Dudukalo’s second place meant that he jumped on top of the standings, 12 points clear of the previous leader Kirill Ladygin. The podium was completed by Grigory Burlutskyi.
Mikhail Mityaev was dropped from fourth to ninth on the grid, due to a penalty that resulted from the incident he had had with Maslennikov in the previous event. At the start, pole sitter Ivan Lukashevich and Dudukalo began fighting for the lead and ran abreast for the first half of the opening lap, then Lukashevich took the lead, but at the beginning of lap 2 he outbraked himself and went off at T1, which prompted the safety car into action.
When racing resumed in lap 5, Dudukalo led from Gavrilov, Andrej Maslennikov, Rustam Fatkhutdinov, Burlutskyi, Mityaev and Ladygin.
After starting from P13 following a disappointing Qualifying, Dmitry Bragin was quickly recovering and on lap 6 passed Ladygin for P7, while Burlutskyi moved into P3 ahead of Maslennikov and Fatkhutdinov.
Dudukalo and Gavrilov were having a close fight for the lead, Burlutskyi ran undisturbed in third and so did Fatkhutdinov in fourth. Behind them there was a thrilling battle for P5 with plenty of contact between Mityaevn, Bragin, Ladygin, Maslennikov and Pavel Kalmanovich. Eventually it was Mityaev who finished fifth, with Bragin sixth.
A couple of turns before the end of the final lap, Gavrilov made his move on Dudukalo, they made contact and Gavrilov went through to claim his first win of the season.
Race 2 is due to start at 16:55 local time (15:55 CEST) with Ladygin and Ilya Yekushevsky sharing the front row of the reversed grid; live streaming at www.tcr-series.com. 

Race 1
1. Klim Gavrilov (VRC-Team, Hyundai i30 N), 15 laps
2. Aleksey Dudukalo (LUKOIL Racing Team, Audi RS 3 LMS), 0.380
3. Grigory Burlutskyi (Carville Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 3.246
4. Rustam Fatkhutdinov (AG Team, Audi RS 3 LMS), 6.796
5. Mikhail Mityaev (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport), 9.036

Championship points
1. Aleksey Dudukalo 83 pts.; 2. Kirill Ladygin 71; 2. Mikhail Mityaev 64 

Picture: Grigory Golyshev