Gavrilov wins Sochi Race 1 and gets closer to Bragin

At Sochi Autodrom, Klim Gavrilov converted pole position into his third race win of the season, a result that helped him to get closer to the leader of the TCR Russia standings Dmitri Bragin.
At the start, Gavrilov and his Carville Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI ran abreast with Mikhail Grachev’s LADA Vesta and they made contact before T1. Both drivers were able to keep control of their swinging cars, but if Gavrilov managed to stay in the lead, Grachev dropped at the back.
Gavrilov began to pull away, while Lukoil Racing’s Ivan Lukashevich overtook his teammate Aleksey Dudukalo for second. The fight for fourth involved Anton Badoev, Bragin and the LADA Sport Rosneft duo of Kirill Ladygin and Vladimir Sheshenin.
On lap 2, Bragin overtook Ladygin for fifth, but on the following lap Irek Minnakhmetov’s Audi hit Roman Golikov’s Volkswagen while they were fighting for the eighth position. They both retired and the safety car was deployed to recover Golikov’s car.
When the race resumed on lap 6, Ladygin and Bragin ran abreast as they battled for fifth, but Sheshenin benefited from the situation and overtook them both. One lap later Ladygin overtook Bragin for sixth just before the race was disrupted again after Lev Tolkachev’s Cupra crashed; the safety car circulated for two laps and pulled into the pits at the end of the last lap, meaning that the field finished in the same order with Gavrilov the winner from Lukashevich, Dudukalo, Badoev, Sheshenin, Ladygin and Bragin.
Gavrilov has moved up to second in the standings, 23 points behind Bragin and two ahead of Lukashevich. Other contenders for the title are Dudukalo and Ladygin who are currently 32 and 39 points behind the leader.
The second race will start tomorrow at 11:40 local time (10:40 CET) with with Pavel Yashin’s Cupra and Grachev’s LADA sharing the front row; live streaming at www.tcr-series.tv.