“Smart” driving from Frijns gives Andretti a boost

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Robin Frijn’s sixth place finish puts Amlin Andretti within ten points of team standing rivals Mahindra, but it could have been more for the American team. Simona de Silvestro failed to score any points after an off track diversion late in the race cost her places.

The day started well for de Silvestro. Out in the third qualifying group, she qualified twelfth, starting the race in eleventh after Antonio Felix Da Costa’s grid penalty. It was her best qualifying performance for the team and it looked like it was going to be a good race for the Swiss driver, who’s yet to score a point this season.

The Andretti drivers enjoyed a competitive battle in the first stint of the race, but it was in the second stint that Frijns took the advantage over de Silvestro. Frijns started the race in twelfth after a disappointing qualifying session, but attacked through the race to work up the field and finish sixth.

Frijns descried his race from the pit stop: “I overtook Sarrazin from the first lap onwards, but Simona couldn’t overtake him so she was really unlucky. She lost ground to the group I was in, but her pace was good. Good enough to easily follow us. I was driving behind Bird and Heidfeld. I had a little gap and I was saving a lot of energy to have an attack for the last five laps, which I did. I saw that Bird was using a lot of energy to take over Heidfeld; it took him a couple of laps to over take him and when he eventually overtook him and it only took me one corner to overtake Heidfeld. Then I went for Bird and overtook him also in one go so I had quite a lot of energy left for defending him off so everything went planned.”

[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Pretty pleased with the sixth place finish for Robin after what I felt was a slightly disappointing qualifying session,” said Roger Griffiths, Andretti Formula E Team Co-Principal. “I felt he drove a very smart race, conserving energy. At the same time, he was making solid passes on other competitive drivers out there.”[/pullquote]

De Silvestro didn’t have such a fortunate race, losing a lot of positions after driving off course late in the race. The Swiss driver finished fifteenth overall, outside the points once again.

“Second stint we really struggled a bit and kind of were stuck behind some people and couldn’t get around them,” she said. “Near the end I went a little bit in the grey and lost two positions there. So, a bit of frustrating, but first stint was good so we’ll remember that one.”

Andretti now head for their home race in Long Beach at the start of next month.

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Image courtesy of FIA Formula E Media

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