Kasper Jensen controls first Falkenberg race
Kasper Jensen extended his TCR Denmark championship lead with an unchallenged lights-to-flag victory in the opening race of the weekend in Falkenberg.
Starting from pole after setting a new TCR qualifying record on Saturday, Jensen drove his GMB Motorsport Honda Civic Type R TCR to a comfortable win ahead of fellow front-row starter Jan Magnussen in the Auto Lounge Racing Cupra León Competición. Nicolai Sylvest made it two Cupras on the podium in third place for the Green Development squad.
Marius Solberg Hansen took fourth in his Auto Lounge Racing Audi RS 3 LMS, while Michael Markussen (Cupra León Competición) completed the top five.
The safety car was called once, on lap seven, after Christian Skaar (Auto Lounge Racing Audi) attempted to defend from the attacking Silas Rytter, driving the field’s sole Hyundai i30 N TCR. However, Skaar misjudged his braking point and went deep into Turn 1, striking Didrik Esbjug’s Honda Civic Type R TCR in the process.
Both Skaar and Esbjug were immediately out with damage to their respective cars.
The race was restarted with just under five minutes left on the clock, and while the top five remained unchanged, there was more drama behind as Kevin Engman came under pressure from Jensen’s team-mate Gustav Birch for sixth.
Contact was made, with Engman suffering slight damage to the right-rear of his Audi RS 3 LMS which began dispelling puffs of smoke as bodywork appeared to cut into the tyre.
Birch eventually made it past the Swede, who still defended valiantly to cling on to seventh place.
Mike Halder, Kevin Brandsborg and Philip Lindberg rounded out the top ten.
Race 2, which features a partially reversed grid that will see tenth-placed Lindberg line up on pole position, gets underway at 14:30 CEST.
