Pavel Kalmanovich cruises to easy victory at the N-Ring

Pavel Kalmanovich won the first race of the day in his AG Team CUPRA, leading home the Hyundai of Grigoriy Burlutsiky and Audi of Egor Orudzhev in a largely processional race, save for a busy opening lap.
Kalmanovich started from pole position for the rolling start with Burlutskiy alongside and both got away well, while the Lukoil Racing Team Audi of Egor Orudzhev had a rapid launch from fifth on the grid and dived down the inside at the first corner, snatching third from Zakhar Slutskiy’s Hyundai, who went three-wide into the corner with the LADA of championship leader Kirill Ladygin down his inside along with the Lukoil Hyundai of Andrej Maslennikov, with Maslennikov coming off worse after minor contact.
Ladygin was now up to fourth, although he soon lost ground when he passed on both sides into Turn 8 by Slutskiy’s Hyundai and the AG Team Audi of Aydar Nuriev.
Ladygin was then passed at the hairpin by the TAIF Motorsport Audi of Dmitry Bragin in a bold move around the outside, with the former champion successfully getting ahead of the reigning champion for sixth.
That became fifth when at the start of the second lap, Nuriev locked up and went wide at Turn 1, rejoining the field further down the order, somewhat unsafely, blocking the Audi of Timur Shigabutdinov and the other LADA Sport Rosneft Vesta of Mikhail Mityaev.
Mityaev would go on to have a problematic race, falling down the order with a technical issue, even all the way through the Super Production field, and pitting for repairs. Mityaev would rejoin several laps down before retiring with a broken front-left upright.
Up front, Kalmanovich, Burlutskiy, and Orudzhev pulled away Slutskiy’s Hyundai, while no one really got close enough to make a move, with Kalmanovich winning the race just over a second clear.
The second race at the N-Ring is scheduled for 16:15 local time (15:15 CEST); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com.

N-Ring – Race 1
1. Pavel Kalmanovich (AG Team, CUPRA), 18 laps
2. Grigory Burlutskiy (Carville Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 1.151
3. Egor Orudzhev (Lukoil Racing Team, Audi RS 3 LMS), 1.478
4. Zakhar Slutskiy (Carville Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 5.523
5. Dmitry Bragin (TAIF Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 10.738

Championship points:
1. K. Ladygin 55 pts; 2. P. Kalmanovich 45; 3. A. Maslennikov 28

Picture: SMP