Ladygin wins pole position in TCR Russia at Igora Drive
Kirill Ladygin placed his LADA Vesta Sport on pole position for the inaugural TCR Russia race at the Igora Drive circuit. In a hectic session Ladygin was the only driver to complete a lap of the new racetrack in less than 1:51. And he did it twice, in Q1 and Q2.
The first 20-minute part of the Qualifying saw Pavel Kalmanovich set an early pace with a lap of 1:51.555 that was soon bettered by Ladygin’s 1:51.364. Moments later the reigning champion Dmitry Bragin jumped on top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:51.167, but this was immediately disallowed due to a track limit infringement. Bragin was quick to react and set a new provisional fastest time of 1:51.236, but eventually Ladygin went even faster in 1:50.873 and then Kalmanovich moved into second with 1:51.136.
Quite surprisingly, both the race winners of the first event at Smolensk – Ladygin’s teammate Mikhail Mityaev and LUKOIL Racing Team’s Aleksey Dudukalo – failed to make the cut in 11th and 12th position respectively.
In Q2, Kalmanovich confirmed to be very much at ease on the new circuit and set a provisional fastest time of 1:50.067, however Ladygin again proved the fastest of the pack with two consecutive laps of 1:51.005 and 1:50.967. Bragin provided the last thrill, moving into second with a lap of 1:51.048.
The reversed grid for the second race will feature a full Audi front row with Rustam Fatkhutdinov and Andrej Radoshnov who qualified eighth and seventh respectively.
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
1:50.967 Kirill Ladygin (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport)
1:51.048 Dmitry Bragin (STC TAIF Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N)
1:51.067 Pavel Kalmanovich (AG Team, CUPRA)
1:51.336 Ivan Lukashevich (LUKOIL Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N
1:51.546 Klim Gavrilov (VRC-Team, Hyundai i30 N)
Championship points
1. Mikhail Mityaev 46 pts; 2. Kirill Ladygin 38; 3. Aleksey Dudukalo 33
Picture: Grigory Golyshev
