DTC: Jyllands-Ringen rounds 6, 7 qualifying

Jan Magnussen will have best starting spot in second round at Jyllands-Ringen Rounds six and seven of this year's Danish Touringcar Championship take place at the annual Grand Prix Denmark meeting at Jyllands-Ringen, and for the first of the double header rounds Jesper Sylvest claimed pole position. Even though the Citroën Xsara driver won the inaugural DTC championship in 1999, Saturday's pole position was the first for the driver and it came following a very disappointing free practice session on Friday afternoon.

"It was very demoralizing to end up just 16th quickest yesterday, as I knew the car had speed, but I had not expected to end up as number one today," a happy Sylvest said after the qualifying session that decided the grid for round six.

"The secret is that we have tried everything possible with the set-up, so we gambled with something that we hadn't tested earlier. We just had an idea that it would work here. The car drives absolutely wonderfull, but it hopefully also has something to do with the driver."

In the timed practice session for round seven of the Danish Touringcar Championship Sylvest only managed to claim fifth fastest time, and instead it was the Peugeot Statoil Motorsport duo of Jan Magnussen and Jason Watt who monopolized the front row, a mere five hundreth of second splitting the pair.

"It is a clear indication that we have everything in control," Magnussen said after the session, which he had elected to end prematurely. "When I did my pole lap, it happened on a traffic-free lap, and then I ran into some traffic. I got one more lap, where I almost managed to do the same time, so I thought that no further improvements were possible and I stopped."

The two qualifying sessions had severel positive surprises. The biggest came from defending champion Michael Carlsen, whose successes earlier in the season have seen his Peugeot 306 GTI given 80 kilo of ballast. Despite this he managed to lap below the lap record in practice for round seven.

"If anybody had told me beforehand that I would be so fast, I would not have believed them. But I managed to do it nevertheless, as we had made the car stiffer and there is no doubt that this is the reason for my success," Carlsen explained. For round seven he will line up in third position alongside Per Poulsen, who also comes from the island of Funen.

"We made some smaller modification to my Volvo with a softer front set-up and a stiffer rear set-up, but what really made the difference, were two fresh tyres at the end," a happy Poulsen explained.

Less positive was Casper Elgaard, however. As a dark horse in the title battle which is being led by Carlsen and Watt the Peugeot 406 Coupé driver had hoped to close the gap to the leaders, but it will be difficult with ninth and tenth places on the grid.

"I cannot be satisfied with that result. I felt that the car worked nicely on the circuit, but the lap times just aren't right," a bemused Elgaard said. <pre>

Result of qualifying for round 6 of the Danish Touringcar Championship: 1. Jesper Sylvest Sylvest Motorsport Citroën Xsara Coupé VTS 48,973 2. Jason Watt Peugeot Statoil Motorsport Peugeot 306 GTI 49,000 3. Jan Magnussen Peugeot Statoil Motorsport Peugeot 306 GTI 49,018 4. Michael Carlsen Michael Carlsen Peugeot 306 GTI 49,208 5. Gunnar Kristensen Team Brask Peugeot 306 GTI 49,293 6. Carsten Leveau Team Brask Peugeot 406 Coupé 49,492 7. Mike Legarth Legarth Racing Team BMW 320i 49,512 8. Kent Bo Lauridsen Team Brask Peugeot 306 GTI 49,533 9. Casper Elgaard Team Brask Peugeot 406 Coupé 49,555 10. Per Poulsen S40 Racing Volvo S40 49,615

Result of qualifying for round 7 of the Danish Touringcar Championship: 1. Jan Magnussen Peugeot Statoil Motorsport Peugeot 306 GTI 48,536 2. Jason Watt Peugeot Statoil Motorsport Peugeot 306 GTI 48,586 3. Michael Carlsen Michael Carlsen Peugeot 306 GTI 49,034 4. Per Poulsen S40 Racing Volvo S40 49,150 5. Jesper Sylvest Sylvest Motorsport Citroën Xsara Coupé VTS 49,196 6. Mike Legarth Legarth Racing Team BMW 320i 49,300 7. Gunnar Kristensen Team Brask Peugeot 306 GTI 49,325 8. Martin Jensen Team Autoforum Motorsport Volvo S40 49,432 9. Michael Schröter Volkswagen/Castrol Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI 49,504 10. Casper Elgaard Team Brask Peugeot 406 Coupé 49,615

-dtcc