Last weekend’s Berlin E-Prix double-header is one that ABT CUPRA Formula E Team will never forget, with Nico Müller having claimed the team’s first top ten of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
Heading into the Tempelhof Airport Circuit, ABT CUPRA were the only team not to have scored a point, an unwanted statistic they no longer possess. Whilst Saturday’s race was uneventful for Müller, the Swiss driver was unbelievable on Sunday, after qualifying on the front row. Sunday’s wet qualifying session worked perfectly in ABT CUPRA’s favour, with Robin Frijns having claimed a famous pole position.
With a ABT CUPRA front row lockout, Müller battled incredibly hard to keep himself either within the top ten, or within touching distance of it. By the end of what was a dry race, Müller crossed the line in ninth, to claim his first points of the season.
It was a “rollercoaster ride of emotions” for Müller in Berlin, with the Swiss driver having loved seeing “the happy faces” in the garage.
“This weekend was a bit of a rollercoaster ride of emotions: a tough Saturday was followed by a Sunday with a place on the front row of the grid and points in the race. It was nice and emotional to see the happy faces in the team when Robin and I came back into the pits after the successful qualifying. We knew the race was going to be tough, but we still made the best of it.”
“Sunday was a completely different story” – Robin Frijns
For Frijns, the Dutch driver also had a very uneventful race on Saturday, with him having saved his star quality for Sunday’s qualifying session. He used all of his skill to claim his first pole position since the Season Seven Diriyah E-Prix, after mastering the challenging conditions.
By claiming pole, Frijns scored ABT CUPRA’s first points of Season Nine, with him having been awarded three points for claiming pole. Unlike Müller, Frijns wasn’t able to convert his front row start into a points finish, with the Dutch driver having tumbled down the order to seventeenth.
Regardless of that, it was a day that Frijns will never forget, with him having experienced “great emotional moments” in the car and in the garage.
“We had a pretty difficult Saturday, where we finished way back after a tough qualifying session, but Sunday was a completely different story: pole position, front row of the grid and a race in which we were able to fight for a long time. Those were great emotional moments in the car and in the garage and gave us even more motivation not to give up and to continue right there in Monaco – maybe we’ll have a bit of luck with the weather there too…”
