Robin Frijns: “We fight for every point we can get”
Robin Frijns made debut in front of his home crowd in a DTM car today, crossing the line in fifth as the best placed Audi driver.
The Dutch qualified in seventh place on the grid, climbing up to fifth after a battling race. “It was a positive race today,” Frijns told TouringCarTimes. “I think we maximised what we could do, as Mercedes looked quite strong all the weekend. After quali the top four were Mercedes, so for them it’s quite easy to play it right with the tactics and with defending from others, which they did.
“I was the first non Mercedes, it was a good day for Audi considering the season so far. Nico (Müller) was unlucky with the problem he had, as was René (Rast) with the safety car.”
Audi Sport has shown an improved pace this weekend, but the Ingolstadt-based manufacturer still has to improve in qualifying. “In the race we were stronger than in qualifying, where we can’t do as Mercedes does,” said Frijns.
“But in the race the car is always strong with the tyres. In the first 3-4 laps I was waiting for the pressures to come up because I didn’t wan’t to cut the tyre on the kerb. But as soon as they were up, I started pushing Pascal (Wehrlein), but it’s difficult to overtake here at Zandvoort.”
The Dutch also was able to race at his home track for the first time after a number of years, which posed a challenge in itself: “This is the first time I drive at Zandvoort with the new tarmac, last time I drove here was three years ago, so I don’t have an advantage for competing at my home track, moreover, it’s my team-mates who have an advantage over me.
“It’s nice to drive for the home crowd. Everybody is supporting you, the grandstands are quite full, so I enjoyed today.”
Frijns approaches the season equator as the second best placed Audi driver in the championship: “I’m enjoying myself in DTM, although the pace and general Audi performance it’s not as it was last year, but we do our best, but today we maxed out and we fight for every point we can get.”
