Robin Frijns put the disappointment of his no score from race one in Saudi Arabia behind him as he claimed his first points and first podium of the 2021/22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season on Saturday evening.
The Envision Racing driver ended Friday’s opening race outside the points in sixteenth after picking up a penalty for a collision with Mahindra Racing’s Oliver Rowland, but he had no such problems in race two as he converted a top four start into a second-place finish on Saturday.
Frijns was involved in the lead battle for much of the race, and he had just passed ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Lucas di Grassi for second when the safety car was deployed for the crash of the other Mahindra of Alexander Sims.
The race was to end behind the safety car, ending the possibility of a grandstand finish to the race, and ending the chances of Frijns winning the third E-Prix of his career. But despite this, he was pleased to bring home a good haul of points to kickstart his season.
“After a difficult day yesterday, scoring no points, and seeing how quick Mercedes were yesterday, we knew it would be a tough job today,” said Frijns.
“I was trying to hang on with the guys and I felt really confident in the car, the guys did a great job, and at the end I finished P2 – I’m over the moon.”
Sylvain Filippi, the Managing Director and CTO at Envision Racing, was pleased with Frijns’ result in what he described as an ‘intense’ race two of the Diriyah E-Prix, which gave the team its first top three finish of the year.
“Robin had a very strong qualifying session and put the car third for the race,” said Filippi. “The race itself was very intense, with Robin racing at the front from the start, and with some great overtakes secured our first podium of the season with an excellent second place.”
