Frijns concedes DTM title challenge over after Zolder DNF

Frijns had been one of the three main title contenders of the 2020 season along with Abt teammate Muller and two-time champion Rene Rast of Team Rosberg, impressing with his consistent race results and five pole positions in the first six rounds of the season.

But his title challenge unravelled at Zolder, where he was unlucky to be collected by an out-of-control WRT Audi of Fabio Scherer, who had been rear-ended by BMW’s Jonathan Aberdein under braking for the Turn 5 chicane. 

It marked the Dutch driver’s second retirement in as many rounds after he crashed at the pit exit at the same venue the previous incident - an incident for which he took full responsibility.

The two low points of the year, which marked the end of his unbeaten points scoring streak, have left him 41 points adrift of championship leader Rast with just 56 on offer in the Hockenheim decider next month.

With such a big points deficit, Frijns has admitted that the 2020 title battle is now a two-horse race between Muller and Rast going into the final round.

"If you are 20 or 30 points behind, it's a mission impossible," said Frijns. "It's out of my hands. I have to hope for mistakes from others. It was not my fault, but you can see that anything can happen. But I'm not thinking about the championship at the moment.

“I’ll do my job and I see where I end up. It’s quite clear. Mathematically I still have a chance for the championship but it could be well very soon over after Race 1. And Nico is completely involved in it. We’ll see how it goes. I cannot help Nico if he has an issue or whatever, but if we are fighting [on track] I don’t think I will make his life very difficult.”

While Frijns initially vented his frustration over team radio, he said he doesn’t blame either Aberdein or Scherer for the incident that took him out of the race, saying he was just unfortunate to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“I’ve seen the footage afterwards,” Frijns said. “I wouldn’t blame one person. One of them moves when braking, the other tries to avoid, but he is also braking, it doesn’t help it. It was a mess behind me.

“I saw Aberdein coming very quickly at me off braking as I saw in the camera, so I was turning in quicker just to avoid Aberdein hitting me. But I didn’t see Scherer. I was in the corner and then I got T-boned.”