Nelson Piquet Jr is hopeful that he can once again put his NextEV TCR at the front of the grid at the Marrakesh ePrix.

The Chinese team claimed a surprise 1-2 in qualifying in the season opener in Hong Kong, and although they fell back in the race Piquet Jr believes that he will be able to fight it out at the front this season.

When asked if he was anticipating a repeat of his Hong Kong qualifying performance, Piquet Jr said “I hope so, we were very happy to qualify on the front row, but I think it’s going to depend on the track.

“Hong Kong was a really tough track and Oliver and I have shown before that we do well on complex circuits.

“Oliver showed it in London and we both demonstrated it in Hong Kong. If Marrakesh is difficult then I can see a repeat.

“Looking at the worst case, I would say we would be in the top six or eight, but we are aiming for Super Pole again.”

The season one champion also said that the team had been working tirelessly since the first race to evaluate the new parts on the car.

With pre-season testing taking place at Donington rather than a street circuit, it meant that Hong Kong was the team’s first opportunity to test the car on a representative track.

“Off-season testing is not on a street track, so the first time we can put the car to a real test is at the first race of the season,” Piquet Jr said.

“So, in Hong Kong it was our first opportunity to really experience our new technology, which means that post-event there is a huge amount of work to do to look at all the data and evaluate the new parts that were introduced.

“We work between every race to make the next one the best that we can.”