AvtoVAZ opened motorsport season in Russia

The 27th "Race of Champions" was held on the ice track of the AvtoVAZ training ground in the Samara Region last weekend. The winner of the competition for the ninth time became Kirill Ladygin, who during the final races was ahead of the first Russian Formula 1 pilot Vitaly Petrov, Izvestia correspondent reports. The final races were held on sports cars Lada Iskra, the modification was designed specifically for ice races.

At the start of the competition came 16 athletes, including ex-pilots of Formula 1, multiple champions in circuit racing, drifting, rally-raids, karting, ice racing, classic rally and rally-cross. In addition to Petrov and Ladygin, the stars included Russian champion and vice world drift champion Arkady Tsaregradtsev, as well as five-time winner of the Dakar Rally Marathon Eduard Nikolaev.

The main sensation of the group stage was the failure of the reigning winner of the Race of Champions, Vladimir Sheshenin, to reach the quarter-finals: three-time winner Dmitry Bragin and his pupil Mikhail Simonov (2024 Russian Ring Racing Champion in the Touring class) advanced to the next stage of the competition. From Group "A" they were joined by Lada Sport Rosneft pilots Kirill Ladygin and Mikhail Mityaev, who has already won once in Sosnovka. Colleagues from the SMP Racing team Vitaly Petrov and Alexander Smolyar also got tickets to the playoffs in Group "C". Eduard Nikolaev did not prove himself in qualifying, but managed to go further in the main day of the competition together with Egor Sanin, a multiple winner of the Race of Champions.

After the quarter-final heats the list of participants of the race was halved. Ladygin confidently passed Nikolaev, Bragin was a couple of seconds ahead of Smolyar. Vitaly Petrov, already for the third time participating in the "Race of Champions", passed Mikhail Simonov. Egor Sanin was a bit faster than Mikhail Mityaev. The winners of the semifinals - Kirill Ladygin and Vitaly Petrov - fought in the final. But first the spectators witnessed the fight between Egor Sanin and Dmitry Bragin. According to the rules of the competition, the decisive races are held until two victories. The third place in the "Race of Champions" went to Sanin, who was twice faster than Bragin.

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Within the framework of the "Race of Champions" Izvestia correspondent found out the dates of the beginning of sales of a new sport modification of the classic off-roader Lada Niva. It is assembled by the Lada Sport division, to the assembly line of which AvtoVAZ supplies painted Niva bodies. Pre-production of the model began in late December last year.

Earlier on Monday, January 27, AvtoVAZ announced the start of production of Lada Vesta with a new transmission - 6-speed manual. As noted by the automaker, AvtoVAZ is introducing such a gearbox for the first time on production cars.