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Jaguar driver Paul di Resta topped the morning session of Formula E's rookie test in Marrakech, which was briefly interrupted by a dog running onto the circuit.

Maximilian Gunther settled at the top of the times after the first of three hours of morning running in Morocco, where the test is being held exclusively for drivers who have not held a Formula E race licence.

Gunther, driving for Dragon Racing, clocked a 1m22.599s to narrowly head di Resta and DS Virgin Racing's Joel Eriksson by half a tenth.

Eriksson then found a tenth to leapfrog his 2017 European Formula 3 Championship rival, before the first of two stoppages.

Gunther's Dragon team-mate Andrea Caldarelli was the culprit; the Italian crashed at the start of the lap, causing heavy damage to the front end. He did not emerge again in the morning.

BMW DTM driver Bruno Spengler looked set to challenge his new-for-2018 team-mate Eriksson for top spot, but the Canadian - driving for Andretti in this test - slowed dramatically in the middle sector with an unknown problem.

After Spengler's problem there was a second red flag, although this was much briefer than the one caused by Caldarelli.

A dog ran onto the circuit but proved easier to clear than the crunched Penske EV-2, and running resumed almost immediately.

Di Resta moved to the top of the times on a 1m22.343s, with Techeetah's James Rossiter lapping just 0.090s slower.

Light drizzle then started to fall, rendering the rest of the morning useless in terms of improvements.

Nobody else leapfrogged the F3 graduates, which meant Ferrari Formula 1 protege Antonio Giovinazzi ended up fifth, two places and two tenths behind Eriksson in the other DS Virgin.

Giovinazzi headed a close trio of drivers completed by Pietro Fittipaldi (Jaguar) and Alexander Albon (Renault e.dams).

Daniel Juncadella, who set the pace early on, was eighth for Mahindra, with Spengler and the second Renault of Mitsunori Takaboshi, Nissan's Japanese Formula 3 champion, completing the top 10.

Formula 2 race winner Nyck de Vries was the only one of the 20 drivers not to set a time. The McLaren junior was kept in the garage by "technical issues" on his Audi Sport Abt e-tron FE04.

Morning times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps 1 Paul Di Resta Jaguar Jaguar 1m22.343s - 21 2 James Rossiter Techeetah Renault 1m22.433s 0.090s 36 3 Joel Eriksson Virgin DS Virgin 1m22.551s 0.208s 19 4 Maximilian Guenther Dragon Penske 1m22.599s 0.256s 16 5 Antonio Giovinazzi Virgin DS Virgin 1m22.782s 0.439s 19 6 Pietro Fittipaldi Jaguar Jaguar 1m22.791s 0.448s 26 7 Alexander Albon e.dams Renault 1m22.834s 0.491s 28 8 Daniel Juncadella Mahindra Mahindra 1m22.985s 0.642s 34 9 Bruno Spengler Andretti Andretti 1m22.987s 0.644s 36 10 Mitsunori Takaboshi e.dams Renault 1m23.052s 0.709s 33 11 Harry Tincknell NIO NextEV NIO 1m23.076s 0.733s 15 12 Frederic Makowiecki Techeetah Renault 1m23.112s 0.769s 32 13 Nico Muller Audi Audi 1m23.136s 0.793s 46 14 Colton Herta Andretti Andretti 1m23.355s 1.012s 40 15 Andrea Caldarelli Dragon Penske 1m23.492s 1.149s 14 16 Sam Dejonghe Mahindra Mahindra 1m23.580s 1.237s 24 17 Gary Paffett Venturi Venturi 1m24.216s 1.873s 33 18 Alexandre Imperatori NIO NextEV NIO 1m24.581s 2.238s 9 19 Michael Benyahia Venturi Venturi 1m25.202s 2.859s 33 20 Nyck de Vries Audi Audi - - 2



