Ladygin begins his TCR Russia title defence with a win

Reigning TCR Russia champion Kirill Ladygin started the new season on the right foot, with a victory in the opening race at the Smolensk Ring. The LADA Sport Rosneft driver played a perfect strategy, chasing the leaders in the first part of the race and then benefiting from a safety car period and a sudden rain shower to steal the first place from his teammate Mikhail Mityaev, as they secured a 1-2 finish for the LADA Vesta Sport cars.
At the start, Mityaev sprinted from the pole ahead of Ladygin; during the first lap the Carville racing Hyundai i30 N of Grigory Burlutskyi passed Ladygin’s LADA to retake the second position. The leading trio was followed by the Lukoil Racing Hyundai cars of Ivan Lukashevich and Andrej Maslennikov, while the private A.M.G. Motorsport LADA Vesta of Egor Fokin kept the sixth place ahead of the Audi cars of Egor Orudzhev and Dmitry Bragin.
With the exception of Burlutskyi’s teammate Zakhar Slutzkyi who passed Bragin to move into P8, the race was processional. At least until lap 10, when the safety car was deployed to recover a car of the Super Production class. During the neutralization, Burlutskyi pitted to change the front left wheel. 
When racing resumed in lap 11, a shower hit the track and several drivers went off: Fokin, Pavel Kalmanovich and Orudzhev among them. They all rejoined, but soon afterwards, Fokin crashed and retired.
Ladygin moved into the lead in lap 13 and for the two remaining laps he kept Mityaev at bay, beating him by half-a-second under the flag. Slutzkyi overtook Lukashevich for P4 but couldn’t pass Maslennikov who completed the podium.  
Bragin won the sprint for P5 ahead of Lukashevich, Orudzhev and Kalmanovich.
Race 2 starts at 16:15 local times (15:15 CEST) and will be streamed live at www.tcr-series.com.

Smolensk Ring – Race 1
1. Kirill Ladygin (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport), 15 laps
2. Mikhail Mityaev (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport), 0.521
3. Andrej Maslennikov (Lukoil Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N), 1.204
4. Zakhar Slutzkyi (Carville Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 1.836
5. Dmitry Bragin (TAIF Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 3.922

Championship points
1. K. Ladygin 25 pts; 2. M. Mityaev 22; 3. A. Maslennikov 16

Picture: Grigory Golyshev