Having lost the fight against Vandoorne for pole in the qualifying final duel, Frijns immediately set about putting the Mercedes driver under pressure and cleared the Belgian into Turn 4 on the seventh lap of the race – kicking off a race-long battle between the pair.
The Dutchman built enough of a lead to keep hold of first once he’d taken his initial dose of attack mode, following it up with another activation on lap 12 – and although he lost out to Vandoorne the second time around, the Envision driver employed his power boost to repass on the following lap.
Frijns conceded that when race winner Mitch Evans caught up to the pair of them, the Jaguar driver “dropped us dead” and left he and Vandoorne to continue their battle over second with Vergne – with Sam Bird and Edoardo Mortara also getting involved in the fight.
“First of all, I had a really good start and I was thinking about I have to go on Stoff in Turn 4, but he closed the door,” Frijns explained.
“But since then, I was…
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