Pin ‘proud of the mindset’ that she had after tough Zandvoort weekend sees Standings lead slashed

Doriane Pin may have had a more low-key weekend than she has become accustomed to in Zandvoort as her lead in the Standings was cut to 20 points, but her streak of finishing on the podium at every round nevertheless continued.

Last season saw Pin take one pole position and win around the Dutch circuit, but this year, the Mercedes driver found herself out of the fight for pole position as she finished Qualifying in P5, 0.291s adrift of Maya Weug’s lap time.

Although Race 1 was somewhat frustrating for her — a tense battle with Chloe Chambers and a couple of mistakes saw her finish in sixth place, marking her worst result of the season — Race 2 saw a refreshed Pin return to the podium following Ella Lloyd’s five-second penalty.

Reflecting on the unexpected challenge of the weekend, she said: “We were quite competitive last year so obviously we were quite confident going into the race. We were struggling with a few things and struggling with the car as well.

“In the end we managed to maximise it today in Race 2. In Qualifying we could have done much better than this. Pole was an easy target but at the end we messed up a bit. The most important thing is to get a good result in the race and we got P3, so this is definitely good. I’m definitely happy to get a podium in those conditions.”

Despite Weug’s dominant victory, Pin managed to claim a solid haul of points whilst Chambers — her nearest rival heading into Round 5 — failed to start Race 2 following a mechanical issue.

Despite Weug’s victory and Race 1 podium promoting her back up to second, Pin was able to establish a 20-point gap back to the Ferrari driver in the Standings, albeit down from the 37-point advantage she commanded before this weekend.

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“It was a tough one but in the end we got a podium and we can be proud of the mindset that we have, how we always push our limits all the time,” she concluded. “It’s definitely positive and we have to focus now on the last part of the season.

“We are leading the series and we keep leading it, so it’s a good feeling. We have some work to do but for sure Singapore is a different track to Zandvoort. We will need to find performance but I’m confident.

“20 points is still a big gap and we have to focus on ourselves as we have done since the beginning of the season. It’s working so we’ll stay calm as always and bring, I hope, victories.”