Mityaev wins Igora Drive’s Race 1 as Orudzhev fails to start

Mikhail Mityaev took his first victory of the season in TCR Russia’s first race at Igora Drive, beating Dmitry Bragin to the chequered flag by a little over 1.2 seconds. Mityaev’s teammate and championship leader Kirill Ladygin finished third.
As the cars were flagged away to begin the formation Lap, both pole-sitter Egor Orudzhev and Aleksandr Artemyev failed to leave the grid and both Audi cars had to be pushed into the pits. Artemyev would then start from the pit lane but the issue with Orudzhev – a broken drive-shaft – prevented him from joining.
When the race itself started, Mityaev, now alone on the front row, was matched by Bragin from P3 and the pair went through Turn 1 side by side. Bragin’s Audi had just nosed ahead as the pair headed out of the corner, but the LADA had retaken the advantage by the time they reached Turn 2 and from then on Mityaev was able to pull away. After starting from P5 on the grid, Egor Fokin lost out when the lights went out and dropped to tenth.
The first half of the thirteen-lap race was largely processional, with Grigoriy Burlutskiy passing his Carville Racing teammate Zakhar Slutskiy for eighth position on Lap 4 and the recovering Artemyev having to pass the competitors from the Super Production class.
The halfway point in the race then saw a number of incidents. On Lap 7, Ladygin passed Aydar Nuriev for third place with Andrej Maslennikov then passing Pavel Kalmanovich for fifth. Maslennikov then attempted to pass Nuriev for fourth, but there was a slight contact between the pair that saw Nuriev slowed and then forced to head into the pits with a puncture. He rejoined and would eventually finish thirteenth.
The final few laps were enlivened by a scrap for fifth place between Ivan Lukashevich and Kalmanovich. While that battle raged, Slutskiy passed Burlutskiy again for seventh. In the end, Kalmanovich held onto P5 while the sizeable gaps between the other drivers meant there were no other changes in position.
Mityaev therefore took the win from Bragin with Ladygin completing the podium places ahead of Maslennikov and Kalmanovich. These results meant that Bragin cut to 20 points his gap to Ladygin in the standings, while Maslennikov moved into third a further seven points behind. 
The second race is scheduled for 16:15 local time (15:15 CEST); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com.

Igora Drive – Race 1
1. Mikhail Mityaev (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport), 13 laps
2. Dmitry Bragin (TAIF Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 1.274
3. Kirill Ladygin (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport), 6.377
4. Andrej Maslennikov (Lukoil Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N), 7.859
5. Pavel Kalmanovich (AG Team, CUPRA), 7.859

Championship points:
1. K. Ladygin 91 pts; 2. D. Bragin 71; 3. A. Maslennikov 64

Picture: Grigory Golyshev