Kasper Jensen wins first season finale race as Mike Halder jumps the start

Kasper Jensen won the first TCR Denmark race of the Jyllandsringen season finale weekend as Mike Halder, who grabbed the lead into the first corner, was hit with a penalty for jumping the start.

TPR Motorsport driver Halder (Honda) started third but was first into Turn 1 ahead of title rival Jensen (Honda).

But the stewards soon handed the German driver two penalty lane rounds for jumping the start, dropping him down to second place, four seconds behind Jensen.

Philip Lindberg got the jump on Gustav Birch at the start and the two fought hard for third place.

The fight culminated with three minutes left of the race as Birch hit Lindberg, dropping the rival Honda driver down to fifth behind Cupra driver Michael Markussen.

The joy was short-lived for Birch who was handed a penalty round for the incident, dropping him down to fourth.

Halder, who carries 30kg less than his title rival, gained consistently on Jensen as the race progressed. But it was not enough as Jensen won the race with a margin of six tenths over Halder.

Markussen claimed the final podium position ahead of Birch and Lindberg. Swedish Hyundai driver Anton Bergström finished sixth, Jacob Wunderov (Honda) seventh while Rene Povlsen rounded off the top eight behind the wheel of his Honda Civic Type R TCR.

Jensen has extended his lead to 434 points while Halder trails him by 14 points with 60 points left.

The second race of the weekend starts at 14:30 CEST.