Maslennikov converts pole into his first win

After setting pole position in yesterday’s Qualifying, Andrej Maslennikov drove his Lukoil Racing’s CUPRA to convert it into his first victory in TCR Russia.
The first race of the championship’s third event of the season saw Maslennikov’s teammate Aleksey Dudukalo finishing in second position, which was an important result that enabled Dudukalo to take the leadership in the standings, three points clear of the reigning champion Dmitry Bragin and 13 ahead of Maslennikov.
At the start, Maslennikov resisted the attempt of Pavel Kalmanovich who dived to the inside of the pole sitter into Turn 1; behind them Ivan Lukashevich’s Hyundai and Mikhail Grachev’s LADA made contact and the latter was forced to retire.
The incident helped Dudukalo and Klim Gavrilov to move up into third and fourth respectively, while Anton Badoev and Grigoriy Burlutskiy were fighting for the fifth place.
Further behind there was the battle for seventh between Bragin, Lukashevich who has recovered after the incident at the start and Kirill Ladygin.
On lap 12, Kalmanovich made a mistake and dropped from second to sixth as he was passed by Dudukalo, Gavrilov, Badoev and Burlutskiy. During the following lap, Lukashevich tried to pass Bragin at the hairpin, but the reigning champion didn’t give up; the two Hyundai cars ran abreast swapping paints for a while, but Bragin retained the position.
Maslennikov took a comfortable victory with a large margin over Dudukalo and Gavrilov, while Burlutskiy passed Badoev on the last lap and finished fourth.
The second race will start tomorrow at 14:50 local time (13:50 CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.

Race 1
1. Andrej Maslennikov (Lukoil Racing, CUPRA), 15 laps
2. Aleksey Dudukalo (Lukoil Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 12.628
3. Klim Gavrilov (Carville Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 13.618
4. Grigoriy Burlutskiy (Carville Racing, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 14.912
5. Anton Badoev (Academy Rally, CUPRA), 16.431

Championship points
1. Dudukalo 76 pts; Bragin 73; 3. Maslennikov 63