Four Hyundai cars make top-five in TCR Russia Qualifying

Hyundai and LADA cars had a close fight for the pole position in the Qualifying session of the TCR Russia season opener at Smolensk Ring.
Eventually, LUKOIL Racing teammates Ivan Lukashevich and Andrej Maslennikov set the two fastest laps in their i30 N machines, while Mikhail Mityaev disrupted the Hyundai formation by qualifying his Vesta Sport in third position, ahead of the other Korean cars of Klim Gavrilov and reigning champion Dmitry Bragin. 
The Q1 part of the session had given the same response as far the top-four positions were concerned, with Lukashevich the fastest (1:31.428) from Maslennikov (1:31.681), Mityaev (1:31.739) and Gavrilov (1:31.995), while Aleksey Dudukalo’s Audi RS 3 LMS ranked in fifth place (1:32.133).
Lukashevich was fastest once again after the first flying lap in Q2 (1:31.175), with Mityaev second (1:31.276), Maslennikov third (1:31.288) and Gavrilov fourth (1:31.746).
Both Lukashevich (1:31.058) and Maslennikov (1:31.253) managed to improve on their second attempt, locking up the front row for tomorrow’s Race 1, while Mityaev and Gavrilov did not improve and had to settle in third and fourth respectively. With a last lap of 1:31.770, Bragin moved up to fifth ahead of the second LADA car of Kirill Ladygin (1:31.944) and yet another Hyundai, Grigoryi Burlutskyi’s of Carville Racing (1:32.002).  
Sunday’s races will be streamed live at www.tcr-series.com: Race 1 at 11:50 local time (10:50 CEST), Race 2 at 16:55 local time (15:55 CEST). 

Qualifying
1:31.058 Ivan Lukaschevich (LUKOIL Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N)
1:31.253 Andrej Maslennikov (LUKOIL Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N)
1:31.276 Mikhail Mityaev (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport)
1:31.746 Klim Gavrilov (VRC-Team, Hyundai i30 N)
1:31.770 Dmitry Bragin (STC TAIF Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N)


Picture: Grigory Golyshev