Gavrilov claims last gasp pole at Nizhniy Novgorod

Klim Gavrilov drove his VRC Team Audi RS 3 LMS to a last gasp pole position in TCR Russia’s second race meeting at Nizhniy Novgorod. With only a few seconds left in Q2, Gavrilov was clocked at 1:19.255 and beat Ivan Lukashevich’s provisional fastest lap of 1:19.364 by one tenth of a second. They were the only two drivers who managed to break the 1:20 wall in Q2.
In the Q1 part of the Qualifying session, Aleksey Dudukalo was the first driver to complete a lap of 1:19, provisionally topping the classification with the time of 1:19.913; Lukashevich (1:19.918) and Gavrilov (1:19.967) were placed immediately behind Dudukalo, but Anton Badoev and his Rail Pro Team CUPRA created a surprise and jumped into the first position with an impressive 1:19.859 set while the chequered flag was waved.
The first three drivers in the championship standings, Kyrill Ladygin, Dmitry Bragin and Michail Grachev ranked eighth, seventh and sixth respectively and so advanced to Q2.
Lukashevich immediately posted a 1:19.690 at the beginning of Q2 and Gavrilov’s answer was just a bit slower (1:19.707). Then Lukashevich improved to 1:19.364 on his second attempt, but this time Gavrilov was faster then him with a lap of 1:19.255.
LADA Sport Rosneft’s teammates Grachev and Ladygin will share the second row of the grid for Race 1, with Andrej Maslennikov and Badoev – who was not able to repeat his Q1 exploit – will start from the third row. Bragin and Dudukalo qualified in seventh and eighth.
The first race will start tomorrow at 16:15 local time (15:15 CET); live at www.tcr-series.tv.    

Qualifying
1. 1:19.255 – Klim Gavrilov (VRC Team, Audi RS 3 LMS)
2. 1:19.364 – Ivan Lukaschevich (Lukoil Racing, Hyundai i30 N)
3. 1:20.016 – Mikhail Grachev (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport)
4. 1:20.035 – Kirill Ladygin (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport)
5. 1:20.508 – Andrej Maslennikov (Lukoil Racing, SEAT León)

Championship points
1. Ladygin 39 pts; 2. Bragin 36; 3. Grachev 36