Frijns thought about victory for a moment: "Had definitely gone for it"

Robin Frijns is happy with his second place in the second ePrix of the season in Diriyah. Despite a good qualifying session, the Dutchman had expected the Mercedes-powered bolides to disappear into the distance in front of him. However, the opposite turned out to be true.

"Yesterday we saw the guys from Mercedes driving all the way away from the rest of the field. I expected the same, especially with the Venturi guys here," Frijns said of Mercedes' customer team. Indeed, yesterday it was Nyck de Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne who disappeared at the horizion.

Frijns is surprised

In the press conference, at which GPblog.com was present, Frijns said that he was starting to feel better and better. "I was behind Eduardo (Mortara, ed) and tried to get into my rhythm. As the race went on, I felt more and more comfortable in the car. I had a good car, for sure. I was surprised that I could attack them and battle with them. It's been a good day for me."

The race ended under the safety car, after Alexander Sims brought his car to a stop in an awkward spot. Frijns balks that the race was not restarted. In fact, the clock had come down to zero remaining minutes. "Yes. I had definitely gone for it and these two guys know that," he says of Mortara and Lucas Di Grassi.

Victory

Frijns was told halfway through the race that he had less energy left than the two Venturi drivers. It was about half a percent, but still he was not worried. "I had the feeling that it would be okay at the end of the race. I was hoping for two more laps, I had maybe a bit more grip than the cars in front of me, unfortunately it turned out differently. But for me to be second here after yesterday, I'll sign for that."

However, Lucas Di Grassi believes that Frijns was lucky to finish under the safety car. The Brazilian thinks he would have crossed the line second at a normal finish. Indeed, he says he had more energy left which would have worked out in his favour. "He [Frijns'] was very lucky," he said.