Lukashevich beats Burlutskyi to Smolensk pole

Ivan Lukashevich claimed his third pole position of the season and so will start rounds 9 of the TCR Russia championship at Smolensk Ring in front of the field. Which is exactly like he did seven weeks ago when the season kicked off on the very same racetrack.
Lukashevich drove his Hyundai i30 N to set the fastest time already in Q1, with a lap of 1:31.715, ahead of his LUKOIL Racing teammate Andrej Maslennikov (1:31.900) and Carville Racing’s Grigory Burlutskyi (1:31.940), making a 1-2-3 for the Hyundai cars. LADA Sport Rosneft’s Mikhail Mityaev ranked fourth (1:31.974), the last driver who completed a lap in less than 1:32.
In Q2, Lukashevich improved on his first lap out, clocking a fastest time of 1:31.278 than nobody was able to beat. Burlutskyi too set his fastest time on his first attempt, a 1:31.650 that was good enough for second on the grid, while in the dying moments of the session the LADA Sport pair of Kirill Ladygin and Mityaev moved into P3 and P4 respectively, demoting Maslennikov and Aleksey Dudukalo (LUKOIL Racing Team, Audi RS 3 LMS) to fifth and sixth.
Pavel Kalmanovich and Klim Gavrilov qualified in eighth and seventh positions respectively, and so will fill the front row of the reversed grid for Race 2, while the reigning champion Dmitry Bragin posted the ninth fastest lap, meaning the he will start ninth in both races.
Sunday’s races will be streamed live at www.tcr-series.com: Race 1 at 13:25 local time (12:25 CEST), Race 2 at 18:10 local time (17:10 CEST).

Qualifying
1:31.278 Ivan Lukashevich (LUKOIL Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N)
1:31.650 Grigory Burlutskyi (Carville Racing, Hyundai i30 N)
1:31.687 Kirill Ladygin (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport)
1:31.788 Mikhail Mityaev (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport)
1:31.835 Andrej Maslennikov (Lukoil Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N)

Championship points
1. Kirill Ladygin 130 pts; 2. Mikhail Mityaev 98; 3. Dmitry Bragin 98
 

Picture: Grigory Golyshev