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Despite sustaining damage during the Qualifying session, Envision Virgin Racing's Sam Bird sails into Pole ahead of the Marrakesh E-Prix. 

Behind Bird DS Techeetah's Jean-Eric Vergne and BMW i Andretti Motorsport's Antonio Felix da Costa in third (although the Portuguese driver came under investigation during the session).

Former Marrakesh winner Sebastien Buemi will start the race in fourth with BMW i Andretti Motorsport's Alex Sims in fifth. Sixth on the grid is Panasonic Jaguar Racing's Mitch Evans who overshot the braking point on turn six, scuppering his chances of securing Pole. 

Behind Evans is Mahindra Racing's rookie driver Pascal Wehrline, who makes his debut at the Marrakesh E-Prix. He will start the race in seventh with Envision Virgin Racing's Robin Frijns starting in eighth despite posting the fastest time in the first Practice session. 

Panasonic Jaguar Racing's Nelson Piquet Jn will start ninth followed by Mahindra Racing's Jerome d'Ambrosio. Former champ Lucas di Grassi (Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler) will start the race in 11th after struggling with the morning's practice sessions due to a broken water pump. Behind di Grassi on the grid is Nissan e.dams' Oliver Rowland. 

In 13th is Geox Dragon's Jose-Maria Lopez, followed by Oliver Turvey (NIO Formula E Team) and Venturi's Felipe Massa in 15th. Audi's Daniel Abt will start in 16th after an uneventful morning in Marrakesh. 

Starting the race in 17th is birthday boy Edoardo Mortara who celebrates his 32nd birthday today. NIO driver Tom Dillmann will sit behind him followed by HWA Racelab's Gary Paffett and DS Techeetah's Andre Lotterer.

After Geox Dragon's Max Guenther stopped on track after making contact with the barrier coming out of Turn 6, the rookie driver will start the race in 21st while HWA's Stoffel Vandoorne, who suffered a power failure, was denied the chance to post a Qualifying lap time. He will start the race at the back of the grid. 

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With the track starting to heat up at the Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan in Marrakesh, the lap times continued to tumble as Panasonic Jaguar Racing's Mitch Evans set the pace ahead of Qualifying with a record 1:17.262s lap.

Behind Evans was DS Techeetah's Andre Lotterer who was followed by former Marrakesh winner Sebastien Buemi (Nissan e.dams).

Again, all but two of the cars broke the Gen1 record with the exception of Audi Sport Abt Scheffler driver Lucas di Grassi despite being confident of a comeback after a poor start to the season in Saudi Arabia. 

The New Zealand driver slashed the Gen1 record on the track (1:19.651s set by Nico Mueller during last season's rookie test), revealing the difference in performance between the Gen1 and Gen2 cars. 

With less than ten minutes of the session left, Venturi Formula E driver Felipe Massa ground to a halt on track suffering a brief technical issue before starting off again. Envision Virgin Racing's Sam Bird soon followed the same temporary issue. 

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Formula E team NIO confirmed British Jamie Chadwick will again test with the squad following round two of Season 5 in Morocco.
 

Having thoroughly enjoyed her maiden outing in NIO’s Gen-2 car the day after the recent SAUDIA Ad Diriyah e-Prix, where the 20-year-old made a strong impression on the NIO team personnel, Chadwick will also now head to the streets of Marrakesh next week.
 
Race two of the 2018/2019 season will take place on Saturday, 12th January, around the 12-turn Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan before the officially timed post-event test on Sunday, 13th January.
 
As in Saudi Arabia, the Tetbury-based driver – the only female in history to win a race in the British Formula 3 Championship – will again join the team as they continue to focus on set-up work and an ongoing testing development programme.

Jamie Chadwick, Test Driver, NIO Formula E Team: “I’m thrilled to be jumping back into the NIO Season 5 Formula E car at the official rookie test event in Marrakesh."
"I loved every minute of the first test in Riyadh and now I am acclimatised to the car, I am confident we can have a successful test."
"Once again, a huge thank you to Gérry (Hughes) and the team for giving me the opportunity. I cannot wait.”
 
Gérry Hughes, Team Principal, NIO Formula E Team: “After a somewhat reduced test event programme in Saudi Arabia due to a technical issue beyond our control, I am obviously very pleased to extend the opportunity for Jamie to test with us once again."
"This is obviously a case of ‘same car, different testing environment’ but one that I know that she will relish and it will be very interesting to witness her progress during the day.”
 
 

         

 

 

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