Having been drawn in the same opening groups stage together, Vandoorne and Frijns had logged exactly the same time to get through to the duels, hinting at a close encounter between the two.
Vandoorne kept it clean in the final, as Frijns endured a heart-in-mouth moment as he stopped just in time to make it around the second corner – miraculously losing only a smidgen of time to the Belgian.
But Frijns continued to look considerably more wayward in the following clutch of corners, meaning Vandoorne was able to keep his nose ahead to beat his rival by 0.35s.
Vandoorne’s semi-final against Antonio Felix da Costa was an incredibly close bout and, no sooner had the Belgian looked on the cusp of a break against the DS Techeetah driver after the second sector, he took the Turn 12-13 chicane aggressively and lost his margin – with da Costa marginally ahead.
But Vandoorne held his nerve and kept it clean in the final array of 90-degree corners – sitting a mere 0.015s to the good over da…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Motorsport.com – All – Stories…