For a bounded open set $$\Omega \subset {\mathbb {R}}^3$$
Ω
⊂
R
3
we consider the minimization problem $$\begin{aligned} S(a+\epsilon V) = \inf _{0\not \equiv u\in H^1_0(\Omega )} \frac{\int _\Omega (|\nabla u|^2+ (a+\epsilon V) |u|^2)\,dx}{(\int _\Omega u^6\,dx)^{1/3}} \end{aligned}$$
S
(
a
+
ϵ
V
)
=
inf
0
≢
u
∈
H
0
1
(
Ω
)
∫
Ω
(
|
∇
u
|
2
+
(
a
+
ϵ
V
)
|
u
|
2
)
d
x
(
∫
Ω
u
6
d
x
)
1
/
3
involving the critical Sobolev exponent. The function a is assumed to be critical in the sense of Hebey and Vaugon. Under certain assumptions on a and V we compute the asymptotics of $$S(a+\epsilon V)-S$$
S
(
a
+
ϵ
V
)
-
S
as $$\epsilon \rightarrow 0+$$
ϵ
→
0
+
, where S is the Sobolev constant. (Almost) minimizers concentrate at a point in the zero set of the Robin function corresponding to a and we determine the location of the concentration point within that set. We also show that our assumptions are almost necessary to have $$S(a+\epsilon V)<S$$
S
(
a
+
ϵ
V
)
<
S
for all sufficiently small $$\epsilon >0$$
ϵ
>
0
.