Audi Sport Abt’s Lucas di Grassi topped first practice for the Marrakesh ePrix ahead of Jerome D’Ambrosio and team-mate Daniel Abt.
Both di Grassi and Dragon Racing’s Jerome D’Ambrosio were the only men who completed ‘full power’ (200kW) lap times, posting the top two times of the opening session.
The reigning Formula E champion set a lap time of 1:20.310, which was more than one second faster than last year’s pole position time, and almost one second clear of D’Ambrosio.
Of the drivers who set standard 180kW laps, Daniel Abt was the fastest man in a hotly-contested opening practice session.
Abt’s lap of 1:21.577 was closely followed by Jaguar’s Mitch Evans, Renault e.dams’ Sebastien Buemi and DS Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird, who all lapped within one tenth of a second of Abt’s time.
Sam Bird was the first man to attempt a 200kW lap, but the Briton made a mistake and was unable to lower the benchmark.
Seventh-place Jean-Eric Vergne (Techeetah) clocked a 1:21.694, with Nelson Piquet (Jaguar), Felix Rosenqvist (Mahindra Racing) and Oliver Turvey (NIO) completing the top ten.
As expected, the opening session was a low-grip affair, with several drivers making mistakes at the difficult first and last corners.
NIO’s Luca Filippi ran wide and spun at turn one, whilst Andretti’s newcomer Tom Blomqvist also had nervous moments at the fast, sweeping left-handed corner.
The Venturi team were plagued with technical problems throughout the session. Despite appearing to have solved their poor season three reliability, both Eduardo Mortara and Maro Engel stopped on-track on numerous occasions with suspected battery issues.
To view the full results of the opening practice session, click here.
