Sam Bird set the pace in the opening practice session of the Paris ePrix weekend for DS Virgin Racing.
The current second placed man in the Drivers' Championship set a best time of a 1m 01.698s, leading reigning Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi by a small margin of 0.018s with the Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler driver setting the second-best time of the session.
Di Grassi's team-mate, Daniel Abt, set the third fastest time and was only 0.092s off the pace in the second Audi while he was followed by Jaguar Racing's Mitch Evans who faces a 10-place grid penalty at the Paris round of Season Four following a gearbox change prior to the event.
Current championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne completed the top five for Techeetah, 0.325s shy of Bird's pacesetting lap while Alex Lynn was a further 0.185s adrift in sixth fastest in the second DS Virgin car.
Jose Maria Lopez was seventh fastest for Dragon Racing, outpacing his team-mate Jerome d'Ambrosio who was ninth fastest with the pair being separated by Andretti's Antonio Felix da Costa in eighth. Andre Lotterer completed the top 10.
Outside of the top 10, inaugural Formula E champion Nelson Piquet Jr finished the session in 12th fastest after causing a red flag, crashing his Jaguar early on in the 45-minute long session while Renault e.dams' Sebastien Buemi also ended the session with a trip into the barriers to finish in 13th.
Felix Rosenqvist led his Mahindra Racing team-mate Nick Heidfeld in 14th after also crashing in the session, causing a second red flag moments after Piquet's original shunt.
Formula E returnee Ma Qing Hua completed the session in 20th for NIO after replacing Luca Filippi this weekend, 2.143s adrift of Bird.






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