Robin Frijns: “We could have won today”

Robin Frijns had a fighting race at the wheel of his Audi RS 5 DTM from Team Abt Sportsline to finish second at Misano, scoring his best result in the series. But the Dutch feels that the victory was also within his grasp.

Frijns is in his DTM debut season with Audi as the Ingolstadt-based manufacturer is hitting trouble after this year’s technical regulations resulted in a significant 30% reduction in downforce, but the Dutch says that bad luck is a factor as well. “We have been very unlucky,” said the Dutch. “At Brands Hatch, for instance, I was quick in the free practices but had bad luck in the qualifying session with the yellow flags. I came home with zero points, which was very painful for me.”

Asked to compare his previous experience with a GT3 at Misano with driving a DTM, Frijns said: “It’s completely different, the lights in the DTM cars are not made for the night. I’m not complaining at all as I think it was the same for everyone. It’s a different car, different behaviour and different tyres, so I can’t really compare.”

The race was difficult since the qualifying session was held in wet conditions and the track was expected to dry during the evening: “Today in qualifying it was a bit disappointing but in the race we finally put it together and, yes, we finished on the podium.

“I don’t think my previous experience here at Misano in the dark has helped me,” added Frijns. “I started on wets, you never know what the grip is, what line to take. If you don’t feed the line well you go into the wet and you have to watch the dry patches. But I got good speed on the last four laps and I was able to catch Edo (Mortara).”

Frijns was second, just under two seconds behind winning Paul di Resta (Mercedes). “Today I felt I could have go for the victory but I think I got pushed half way through by Timo (Glock, BMW) and I lost four positions because of that. If that didn’t happen things would have been different. Regardless of that, I’m happy with my first podium in second place.”

“I think that was an amazing race. Everything in it, from starting on wet tyres, the overtaking, the safety car, hard fighting, was great,” said Audi Motorsport boss Dieter Gass.

“What Robin did towards the end of the race was fantastic , Edoardo Mortara is almost impossible to overtake, but he did it! He got a fantastic second place and got good performances from Loïc, Nico and Rocky, but it’s also a shame that René and Jamie couldn’t get points today,” added Gass.