WTCR Marrakech: Panis leads frantic first practice ahead of Vernay

Overnight rain meant the track was greasy come the start of the 45-minute session, with few drivers venturing out for competitive laps in the first 20 minutes.

But an increasingly dry line appeared as more and more drivers headed out, and times tumbled in the final 10 minutes.

Panis, the son of 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner Olivier, first shot to the top of the times with a 1m26.386s with a little more than a minute left on the clock.

While he was briefly bumped back to third by Yann Ehrlacher and Nicky Catsburg, he reclaimed top spot with his final effort.

Comtoyou Cupra driver Panis' best lap was a 1m25.841s, which was only a second and a half shy of Gabriele Tarquini's WTCR qualifying record from 2018 despite the imperfect track conditions.

The WRT Audi RS3 LMS of Jean-Karl Vernay ended up second, 0.101 seconds slower than Panis, while Catsburg's briefest of benchmark times ultimately left him third in his BRC Hyundai i30 N.

Ehrlacher ended the session fastest of Cyan's new Lynk & Co 03 runners in fourth, 0.357s down, ahead of the best-placed Honda of Tiago Monteiro.

KCMG driver Monteiro completed 13 laps in his first session since returning full-time to World Touring Cars following his testing crash at Barcelona in 2017, and was 0.415s off the pace.

Munnich Motorsport's Esteban Guerrieri was sixth in his Honda Civic Type R ahead of Yvan Muller's Cyan Lynk & Co, while Daniel Haglof (PWR Racing Cupra), the Comtoyou Audi of Frederich Vervisch and BRC's Norbert Michelisz rounded out the top 10.

In his first World Touring Car practice session since 2010, Andy Priaulx was 11th in his Lynk & Co, 0.732s off the pace, and just ahead of compatriot Rob Huff in the fastest of Sebastien Loeb Racing's Volkswagen Golf GTIs.

The order was as tight as pre-season predictions had suggested, with less than a second separating Panis from World Touring Car returnee Augusto Farfus in 18th.

FP1 times