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Marrakech Formula E: Daniel Abt leads Audi one-two in practice

Daniel Abt headed an Audi one-two in practice for the Marrakech round of the 2017/18 Formula E season

The German won in Hong Kong on the opening weekend of the campaign but lost that victory to a technical infringement.

He kicked off his bid to earn a win he can keep in perfect style by beating reigning FE champion and team-mate Lucas di Grassi in the second of two practice sessions on Saturday.

Despite heavy fog descending on the Moroccan circuit practice two proved to be much faster, with six drivers lapping quicker than di Grassi's session one benchmark.

Abt was the first of the frontrunners to take top spot early in the session, but a lot changed between then and his flying lap that eventually earned him the quickest time.

Six other drivers hit the summit over the course of the session, with the biggest moves coming in the final few minutes.

Alex Lynn dipped below di Grassi's new lap record on a 1m20.192s, before that was narrowly beaten by the two Jaguars - Nelson Piquet Jr went to the top before Mitch Evans displaced him.

Sebastien Buemi was the first driver to break the 1m20s barrier on a 1m19.936s, but moments later di Grassi usurped his long-time rival with a 1m19.898s.

Abt completed the late flurry of improvements by slamming in a 1m19.760s.

Jose Maria Lopez jumped as high as third at one stage on his FE comeback and ended up seventh in second practice, giving hope to the Dragon Racing team that struggled dearly in Hong Kong.

Felix Rosenqvist, Jean-Eric Vergne and Andre Lotterer completed the top 10 in the second session, which - although the circuit was covered in a thick mist most of the time - was nowhere near as eventful as the opener.

While di Grassi kept it clean to go quickest, several drivers had brushes with the wall, lurid slides and runs down escape roads.

Venturi had the worst of the luck in first practice, but it was from reliability rather than driver errors.

Maro Engel stopped five times while his team-mate Edoardo Mortara suffered that fate twice - the team rectified the "software bug" for practice two, in which Mortara complained of a misted-up visor.

FP1 times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m20.310s - 25
2 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 1m21.224s 0.914s 18
3 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m21.577s 1.267s 25
4 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m21.612s 1.302s 21
5 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault 1m21.632s 1.322s 23
6 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 1m21.651s 1.341s 22
7 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 1m21.694s 1.384s 24
8 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 1m21.819s 1.509s 23
9 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 1m21.830s 1.520s 26
10 Oliver Turvey NIO NextEV NIO 1m21.897s 1.587s 23
11 Andre Lotterer Techeetah Renault 1m21.993s 1.683s 23
12 Alex Lynn Virgin DS Virgin 1m22.016s 1.706s 21
13 Jose Maria Lopez Dragon Penske 1m22.105s 1.795s 25
14 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 1m22.195s 1.885s 26
15 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 1m22.282s 1.972s 21
16 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti 1m22.602s 2.292s 26
17 Maro Engel Venturi Venturi 1m23.162s 2.852s 18
18 Luca Filippi NIO NextEV NIO 1m23.769s 3.459s 16
19 Tom Blomqvist Andretti Andretti 1m24.307s 3.997s 24
20 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 1m24.972s 4.662s 25

FP2 times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m19.760s - 16
2 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m19.898s 0.138s 19
3 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault 1m19.936s 0.176s 15
4 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m20.001s 0.241s 15
5 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 1m20.115s 0.355s 13
6 Alex Lynn Virgin DS Virgin 1m20.192s 0.432s 16
7 Jose Maria Lopez Dragon Penske 1m20.384s 0.624s 9
8 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 1m20.391s 0.631s 16
9 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 1m20.411s 0.651s 12
10 Andre Lotterer Techeetah Renault 1m20.441s 0.681s 15
11 Oliver Turvey NIO NextEV NIO 1m20.453s 0.693s 13
12 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 1m20.482s 0.722s 20
13 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 1m20.532s 0.772s 12
14 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti 1m20.594s 0.834s 13
15 Tom Blomqvist Andretti Andretti 1m20.652s 0.892s 10
16 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 1m20.792s 1.032s 13
17 Maro Engel Venturi Venturi 1m20.899s 1.139s 18
18 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 1m21.015s 1.255s 11
19 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 1m21.066s 1.306s 13
20 Luca Filippi NIO NextEV NIO 1m21.186s 1.426s 12

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