TCR Denmark reigning champion Kasper H. Jensen began the championship’s finale at Padborg Park in the best way, setting the pole position for tomorrow’s first race. Jensen drove his Massive Motorsport Honda Civic Type R to clock the fastest times in both the Q1 and Q2 parts of the Qualifying session, beating Jan Magnussen by nearly four tenths.
Four of the five title contenders will fill the two front rows of the grid, with Michael Markussen and Nicolai Sylvest who qualified third and fourth. The fifth driver in contention, Casper Elgaard will start from the back of the grid after being disqualified for receiving external aid after going off in the early minutes of Q1 and remaining stuck in the gravel.
After a full-course-yellow period, action resumed with eight minutes to go and Sylvest posted the first competitive lap of 1:01.306 that was soon bettered by Jensen’s 1:00.893. Many others improved, but nobody went faster than Jensen; Markussen (1:01.126) was classified second ahead of Sylvest (1:01.256), Jacob Mathiassen (1:01.377) and Kenn Bach (1:01.391). The other title contenders were sixth, Magnussen (1:01.714) and eighth, Elgaard (1:01.988) who was then disqualified.
In Q2, Jensen was quickest with his first lap of 1:01.046, but Magnussen improved to 1:01.005. However, Jensen responded and clocked a 1:00.359 that nobody was able to beat. Magnussen improved to be second fastest with a lap of 1:00.603 and then Markussen moved up to third with the time of 1:00.985. He improved further to 1:00.929 but did not move up in the classification, while Jensen had the last word, posting an even faster lap of 1:00.232.
The first race is scheduled to get underway tomorrow at 10:05 CEST.
Padborg Park – Qualifying
1:00.232 Kasper H. Jensen (Massive Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R FK7)
1:00.603 Jan Magnussen (LM Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición)
1:00.929 Michael Markussen (Markussen Motorsport, Peugeot 308)
1:01.004 Nicolai Sylvest (LM Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición)
1:01.033 Jacob Mathiassen (Insight Racing, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce)
Championship points
1. KH. Jensen 314 pts; 2. M. Markussen 262; 3. C. Elgaard 256
Picture: TCR Denmark