Frijns: 'We're leading now, but we need to be there at the end'

Envision Virgin Racing's Robin Frijns pinched his second podium of the season right at the chequered flag in Monaco, as he nipped by Mitch Evans' flagging Jaguar with the Kiwi critical on energy.

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Frijns had led the race for the majority having passed polesitter Antonio Felix da Costa (DS TECHEETAH) with a sweeping move through Sainte Devote on Lap 3. From there, the Dutchman headed the way until the second round of ATTACK MODE came into play. Evans nipped by at Turn 1, and from there, Frijns waited in the wings.

With Evans cutting it a little too fine on usable energy as the minutes ticked down, Frijns was able to capitalise, take second over the line and leapfrog Mercedes-EQ's non-scorer on the day, Nyck de Vries, atop the standings. Frijns is not for a second getting ahead of himself, though. He's been here before.

"I can’t really take much from being in the standings lead," said the 29-year-old. "I was in exactly this spot in Season 5 and I had three or four DNFs. So, I hope I can just keep on scoring points.

"I’m a bit frustrated that I didn’t get the three points in Super Pole but the top four was all within a tenth of a second. I was at the other side of the line, just 0.020s in front of Mitch (Evans) but overall, I can be happy with the Monaco weekend.

"I was struggling with the car in Valencia and Rome, with just pure race pace and dry and especially hot conditions. In Monaco, I felt really strong in the car, and confident. That’s given me a good boost for the rest of the season.

Formula E's first foray onto the full Monaco circuit threw up a storming encounter, with overtaking all the way down the field throughout the race. Frijns himself made a move stick, and he had the box seat for Evans'outrageous move on da Costa for the lead on Lap 18 at Beau Rivage.

"It was good fun from all of us. We all know our borders, what’s fair and what’s not. So, I think we all enjoyed ourselves out there, and there was some really good fighting. I had some good views up ahead of Mitch overtaking Antonio (Felix da Costa) into Turn 3 – that was pretty close. Sometimes I left a bit of a gap in case anything went wrong, but it didn’t! I think it’s just great fun – I’m really enjoying myself."

Frijns is currently sitting where every other driver would like to be in the points table, approaching the half way point in Formula E's first season as an FIA World Championship and Round 8 in Puebla, Mexico on June 19.

It's all about maximising potential, race in, race out from here, he says.

"My season so far has been kind of hit or miss. If you see all the double headers, it’s either I score big points or I score no points. Like I had in Valencia, like I had in Rome.

"So, you need to score the points when you can. If it’s fifth, it’s fifth; and if it’s eighth, it’s eighth; we just need to maximise our potential each weekend. Hopefully, at the end of the day in Berlin we’ll still be in with a shot at the championship. We’re leading now, but we need to be leading at the end."