Maiden TCR Russia pole position for Nuryev at Kazan

AG Team’s Aidar Nuryev claimed his first pole position in TCR Russia in the 20-minute Qualifying session at Kazan Ring.
It was a very tight session that ended with the top 13 drivers within the same second.
Dmitry Bragin was the first driver to post a competitive lap, under the 1:27 mark; his TAIF Motorsport Audi RS 3 LMS was clocked at 1:26.741, but Andreas Maslennikov demoted him a few moments later, improving to 1:26.393, while reigning champion and current points leader Kirill Ladygin moved into P3 with a lap of 1:26.875.
The next one to top the timesheet was Ladygin’s LADA Sport teammate Mikhail Mityaev who posted a new provisional fastest lap of 1:26.161.
During the final part of the session there were a lot of other improvements that reshuffled the positions between two and five: Maslennikov climbed back to second (1:26.307) ahead of Pavel Kalmanovich (1:26.324), Grigory Burlutskiy (1:26.600) and Bragin (1:26.614).
However, Nuryev had the last word, setting a 1:26.131 that beat Mityaev’s time by 30 thousandths of a second and secured the pole position. The last improvements came from Bragin (1:26.423) who moved back into P5 and Ladygin (1:26.773) who qualified ninth.
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).

Kazan Ring - Qualifying
1:26.131 Aidar Nuryev (AG Team, Audi RS 3 LMS)
1:26.161 Mikhail Mityaev (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport)
1:26.307 Andej Maslennikov (Lukoil Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N)
1:26.324 Pavel Kalmanovich (AG Team, CUPRA)
1:26.423 Dmitry Bragin (TAIF Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS)

Championship points:
1. K. Ladygin 141 pts; 2. A. Maslennikov 109; 3. P. Kalmanovich 108

Picture: SMP/Grigory Golyshev