Posted on 12th November 2016
In the first practice session ahead of the Marrakesh ePrix today, Lucas di Grassi set the pace for Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport ahead of Nico Prost and Sebastien Buemi.
Every driver rushed out of the garage to start the first practice session of the day, but surprisingly the only man to race in Marrakesh, Jose Maria Lopez made the first mistake of the day by running wide at turn seven.
But Nicolas Prost led the early part of the session, as the drivers searched for the ideal racing line as they learnt the layout of the Marrakesh ePrix track layout.
With the rest of the field having no experience on the Marrakesh ePrix, a few mistakes started to creep in as Loic Duval and also Lucas Di Grassi explored the few run off areas around the circuit.
However later on in the session, Lopez damaged his front suspension as he hit the wall coming out of turn 11, but the Argentian was able to make it back to the pits.
With 30 minutes of the session left, Jean-Eric Vergne jumped to the top of the timesheets with 30 minutes remaining in the session, as Nelson Piquet Jr moved into second, 0.048 behind the Techeetah driver.
As the drivers started to understand the track layout, the lap times quickly started to tumble as Oliver Turvey and Felix Rosenqvist traded places at the top with 20 minutes remaining.
With 15 minutes remaining in the session, e.Dams-Renault set the benchmark as Buemi went six-tenths quicker than Daniel Abt in the Audi Sport ABT.
Mahindra Racing driver Felix Rosenqvist then he has the speed to be competitive today, as he moved into second three-tenths behind as Buemi.
There will be a few people scratching their heads at Jaguar, as both Mitch Evans and Adam Carroll could only go a second slower than Buemi's time in a qualifying mode compared to Buemi's time being set in a race mode.
In the final few minutes of the session, drivers started to run at the full 200kW of power as they prepare for qualifying.
Di Grassi ended the session fastest, on a lap where he had lift off considerably as Antonio Felix Da Costa spun in front of him.
No driver really had a clean lap on their 200kW lap, which means it is still all to play for in Marrakesh.
Di Grassi left it late to set his best time of 1:21.923 as the chequered flag fell to end the 45-minute session. Di Grassi was the only driver into the 1:21s (despite Antonio Felix Da Costa spinning in front of him), ahead of Nico Prost was only 0.182s behind in second place ahead of his team mate and championship leader Sebastien Buemi who was over half a second further back in third place.
Heading a closely-bunched pack for the rest of the top ten finishers which included Jean-Eric Vergne in fourth place, Antonio Felix da Costa in fifth place, Jerome D'Ambrosio in sixth place and Felix Rosenqvist in seventh place.
Mitch Evans put in a solid showing for Panasonic Jaguar Racing to finish in eighth place ahead of Hong Kong poleman Nelson Piquet Jr who was ninth and Stephane Sarrazin rounded out the top 10 for Venturi.
The track action resumes with Free Practice Two at 10.30 (GMT).
Driving for Pleasure will be producing reports on every session of the Marrakesh ePrix for 2016/2017 FIA Formula E Championship this weekend
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
