Kalmanovich snatches pole position in TCR Russia at the N-Ring

Pavel Kalmanovich emerged as the fastest driver in the Qualifying for the first race of TCR Russia at the N-Ring, snatching pole position at the wheel of his AG Team CUPRA.
Grigoriy Burlutskiy will start from P2 alongside Kalmanovich in the Carville Racing Hyundai i30 N, with his teammate Zakhar Slutzkiy in third position.
The first driver to break the 1:21 wall was Egor Orudzhev in the Lukoil Racing Team Audi RS 3 LMS who posted a provisional fastest lap of 1:20.855. This was soon beaten by the Hyundai of his teammate Andrej Maslennikov who was clocked at 1:20.541, while Kalmanovich moved into second with a lap of 1:20.557.
Burlustkiy, then, improved the mark to 1:20.430 that seemed to be good enough to give him the pole, but Kalmanovich’s last run produced two even faster laps of 1:20.360 and 1:20.168 that placed him on the pole.
Slutzkiy was the last one to improve with a lap of 1:20.515 that placed him on P3.
The current championship leader, LADA Sport Rosneft’s Kirill Ladygin qualified sixth with a lap of 1:20.700.
The session was very close with the 11 fastest drivers covered by less than eight tenths of a second.
Live streaming of both races will be on Sunday at www.tcr-series.com; Race 1 at 11:45, Race 2 at 16:15 local times (10:45 and 15:15 CEST).

N-Ring - Qualifying
1:20.168 Pavel Kalmanovich (AG Team, CUPRA)
1:20.430 Grigory Burlutskiy (Carville Racing, Hyundai i30 N)
1:20.515 Zakhar Slutzkiy (Carville Racing, Hyundai i30 N)
1:20.541 Andrej Maslennikov (Lukoil Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N)
1:20.648 Egor Orudzhev (Lukoil Racint Team, Audi RS 3 LMS)

Championship points:
1. K. Ladygin 45 pts; 2. M. Mityaev 31; 3. A. Maslennikov 29

Picture: SMP