Formula E: Frijns feels gr-eight after victory in Paris

By
Luke Etheridge
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2
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Robin Frijns won a climatic Paris ePrix, and became the eighth winner in eight races in the 2018-19 Formula E season.

The race started under the safety car, due to one half of the grid being wet after rain earlier in the day.

Oliver Rowland pulled away from Nissan team-mate Sebastien Buemi on the first lap. 

However, a mistake at Turn 10 next time left the Brit in the wall and dropped to the back of the field.

Frijns and Felipe Massa were the first of the front runners to use attack mode, and began to pressurise Buemi for the lead.

It was the Swiss driver’s attempt to activate attack mode that led to Frijns’ front wing damage at the exit of turn 8, as the Nissan marginally stayed ahead.

Buemi’s challenge for the win would soon end as he pitted with a puncture.

This was followed by a deluge of rain and led to the first full course yellow.

The hail soon stopped and was replaced by heavy rain, which allowed the racing to continue.

But as soon as the track went green, Rowland was involved in another collision, this time with BMW’s Alexander Sims.

This ended Sims’ challenge, as Stoffel Vandoorne also retired after being caught up in the incident.

Shortly after the second full course yellow, Jean-Eric Vergne was fuming after some robust defending from Venturi’s Eduardo Mortara. 

This led to Vergne demand action from the race director over the team radio.

Any possible penalty for Mortara soon became irrelevant as he made an optimistic overtake on Jaguar’s Alex Lynn.

The attempt left both drivers buried in the barriers, and saw the race’s only safety car appearance.

With three minutes remaining, the race resumed, only to be neutralised in less than a lap.

After being disqualified from qualifying for a tyre pressure infringement, Jerome d’Ambrosio had fought to eighth place. However, the Belgian undone his hard work, crashed into the barriers, and led to the final full course yellow.

Although the incident was cleared with half a lap remaining, there wasn’t enough time for any late moves throughout the field. 

This left Frijns to claim his maiden win in Formula E’s first ever wet race.

Techeetah’s Andre Lotterer took second in the race, and leaves the Chinese team first in the constructor’s championship.

Daniel Abt took third for Audi Sport ahead of teammate Lucas di Grassi.

Frijns declared that the race as ‘the hardest of his life’, and it’s difficult to imagine that the Dutchman will face circumstances like those in Paris again during his career.

Frijns now leads the Drivers’ standings on 81 points, with Lotterer just a point behind. Antonio Felix da Costa and di Grassi are tied on 70 points, with d’Ambrosio dropping to  fifth on 65, after his failure to finish.

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