Malte Ebdrup closes in on Mike Halder with double win in Copenhagen

Malte Ebdrup has closed the gap to TCR Denmark points leader Mike Halder after a double win on the streets of Copenhagen.

TPR Motorsport driver Halder had claimed pole position for the first race ahead of Mascot Motorsport title rival Ebdrup.

And Halder claimed the lead when the lights went out and never looked back in a mainly static first race.

The only move among the top drivers was when reigning champion Kasper Jensen overtook team-mate Ebdrup for second place on the first lap.

Jensen and Ebdrup then closed in on Halder but were never close enough to challenge and the German driver won the race by nine tenths of a second.

Former F1 driver Jan Magnussen was a distant fourth, close to 24 seconds behind, ahead of Lars Højris.

The second race had Rene Povlsen starting from the reversed grid pole position and claimed the lead as the lights went out.

But best start of all was made by Halder who was up into the lead from sixth place on the grid before the end of the first lap.

But Halder soon made a mistake which allowed both Ebdrup and Jensen to get past, with the German Honda driver dropping to third.

The red flags were brought out on the second lap as the sole non-Honda driver Marco Dahl hit the barriers and came to a halt in the middle of the track with a broken suspension on his Hyundai i30 N TCR.

The race was restarted after a lengthy break, with Ebdrup leading ahead of team-mate Jensen.

But Halder was quick to attack Jensen on the restart lap to snatch second place.

The top three drivers remained close throughout the race, with Ebdrup winning the race by eight tenths over Halder and a second over Jensen.

Magnussen was again a distant fourth, six seconds behind, while Povlsen rounded off the top five.

Halder started the third and final race from pole ahead of Ebdrup and Jensen, snatching the lead as the lights went out.

Ebdrup piled on the pressure straight away and was able to claim the lead at the start of the second lap.

As Halder tried to defend second place from Jensen, the German went into the back of Ebdrup which seemed to cause front-right damage to his Honda.

Smoke started billowing from the front-right wheel arch of Halder’s car with nine minutes left of the race as the TPR Motorsport was shown a technical flag and had to pit for repairs, losing four laps on the leaders to finish eighth and last.

Ebdrup claimed his second consecutive win ahead of Jensen and Magnussen.

Dall brothers Mathias and Magnus claimed positions four and five.

Halder continues on top of the standings but is just five points ahead of Ebdrup while Jensen is third, 20 points adrift.

The next TCR Denmark race takes place at Jyllandsringen on August 23-24.