Bragin wins Race 1 from Sheshenin and Ladygin
TCR Russia reigning champion Dmitry Bragin claimed his second victory of the season in the first race at Nizhniy Novgorod’s NRing and jumped on top of the standings.
The race started without Mikhail Grachev and Aleksey Dudukalo who had qualified second and third, but eliminated each other in an unprecedented collision during the formation lap. Dudukalo’s Audi RS3 LMS suffered from a broken front suspension and the Lukoil Racing’s driver, who was leading the standings after the previous event, sat in the pit for the whole race. As for Grachev, he started from the pit lane and eventually finished 11th in his LADA Vesta.
Bragin took the lead at the start, resisting the assaults of the two other LADA Sport Rosneft drivers, Vladimir Sheshenin and Kirill Ladygin. For the whole 18 –lap distance the TAIF Motorsport man was able to maintain a half-a-second gap between him and Sheshenin, with Ladygin following a further five tenths adrift. This meant that the two chasers were never close enough to attempt an overtaking manoeuvre on the leading Audi and settled in second and third.
Lukoil Racing’s Klim Gavrilov finished fourth ahead of Irek Minnakhmetov who was able to keep Roman Golikov at bay in the final laps.
The result meant Bragin is the new championship leader with 76 points, six clear of Ladygin; they are followed by Golikov (65), Sheshenin (64) and Gavrilov (61), while Dudukalo slipped to fifth with 55.
Race 2 at the NRing takes place tomorrow at 11:40 local time (10:40 CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.
