Third victory for Kirill Ladygin in TCR Russia

Kirill Ladygin claimed his third victory of the season in TCR Russia as he led from lights to flag the first race at Moscow Raceway. For the whole distance, the LADA Sport Rosneft’s driver managed to control his closest competitor, the reigning champion Dmitry Bragin who settled in second position, while Ladygin’s teammate Mikhail Mityaev completed the podium.
Ladygin sprinted from the pole to take the lead from Bragin, Pavel Kalmanovich and Mityaev. As the field negotiated Turn 1, Anton Nemkin spun and Kalmanovich was punted off; they both retired.
The leading pair of Ladygin and Bragin pulled away, while behind them there was a close battle between Mityaev, Andrej Maslennikov, Ivan Lukashevich and Grigoryi Burlutskyi. In lap 2, Rustam Fatkhutdinov and Klim Gavrilov clashed and the latter spun, dropping several places.
In lap 3. Burlutskyi overtook Lukashevich for P5, and in lap 4, Aleksey Dudukalo passed Fatkhutdinov for P7.
In the second part of the race, Ladygin created a small gap ahead of Bragin who successfully defended the second place from Mityaev. Maslennikov, Burlutskyi, Lukashevich and Dudukalo filled the positions between 4 and 7, while Fatkhutdinov retained P8 ahead of Andrej Radoshnov.
These results meant that Ladygin increased his leading margin in the standings to 28 points ahead of Dudukalo.  
Race 2 is due to start at 16:55 local time (15:55 CEST) with Dudukalo and Gavrilov sharing the front row of the reversed grid; live streaming at www.tcr-series.com. 

Race 1
1. Kirill Ladygin (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport), 13 laps
2. Dmitry Bragin (TAIF Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N), 1.270
3. Mikhail Mityaev (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport), 2.257
4. Andrej Maslennikov (LUKOIL Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N), 3.783
5. Grigory Burlutskyi (Carville Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 4.930

Championship points
1. Kirill Ladygin 123 pts; 2. Aleksey Dudukalo 95; 3. Mikhail Mityaev 89

Picture: TCR Russia/Grigory Golyshev