Lucas di Grassi led the timesheets for Audi in the opening Formula E practice session for Saturday's Mexico City E-Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, finishing t♑hree-tenths of a second clear of Venturi's Edoardo Mortara.

Defe🅘nding Formula E champion di Grassi arrived in Mexico a lowly 20th in the drivers' standings after failing to score any poin✤ts in the opening four rounds of the season thanks to recurring reliability issues for the Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler team.

Di Grassi will take a 10-place grid pe🃏nalty later in the day after Audi was forced into a gearbox change on his car, but the Brazilian made a strong start to the week♕end by leading the 45-minut♔e long first practice in Mexico.

D༺i Grassi turned in a fastest lap time of 1:01.158 to finish three-tenths of a second clear of Mortara at the chequered flag as both drivers opted to complete full power 200 kW laps early, acting as a simulation for qualifying later today.

Championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne took third place for Techeetah ahead of Jaguar's Mitch Evans, with both drivers sticking to their race mode pow🍬er of 180 kW, while Alex Lynn rounded out the top five for DS Virgin Racing.

Jose Maria Lopez took sixth for Dragon aheadꦰ of Felix Rosenqvist and Daniel Abt, ✅while Sam Bird and Sebastien Buemi completed the top 10.