Bragin takes straightforward win at Smolensk Ring

Dmitry Bragin, driving an Audi RS3 LMS, took a fairly straightforward victory at the Smolensk Ring, with the SEAT León DSG of Ivan Lukashevich second and Roman Golikov third in a Volkswagen Golf GTI DSG.
From second on the grid, Bragin made a better start than pole-sitter Lukashevich and led the 18-car field into Turn 1. The pair then pulled away to have their own private battle before the challenge from the Lukoil Racing SEAT faded in the latter stages of the race, allowing Bragin in the TAIF Motorsport Audi to take the victory by nearly five seconds.
Behind the pair, there was contact between the two Audis of Klim Gavrilov and Irek Minnakhmetov in Turn 1 and the pair would battle for the remainder of the fifteen-lap race. Aleksey Dudukalo was initially in third place behind the leading pair until his Lukoil Audi was passed on Lap 4 by Roman Golikov’s UGMK Motorsport Volkswagen, and so set up another fight that lasted until the last lap.
After what seemed to be settling into a processional race, the final lap saw a flurry of passing moves that saw Dudukalo drop from fourth to sixth after being passed by both Gavrilov and Lev Tolkachev before Tolkachev ran wide and so allowed Dudukalo to retake 5^th place.
The best of the three LADA Sport Vesta drivers was Kirill Ladygin, who took full advantage of contact between his teammate Mikhail Grachev and the unlucky Minnakhmetov on Lap 14 to pass both cars on his way to finish in 7^th position. Grachev went on to finish 8^th with Anton Badoev 9^th in a SEAT León and Vladimir Sheshenin 10^th in the third LADA. Minnakhmetov finished outside the top ten.
The result means Golikov now has a two-point lead over Gavrilov, with Bragin and Dudukalo a further five points adrift.
Race 2 at the Smolensk Ring takes place tomorrow at 11:40 local time (10:40 CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.