Maserati MSG’s Edoardo Mortara ended the first practise session quickest after seeing a 1:09.700 at the end of a session which was extended by 10 minutes after two red flags interuppted the session.
The first red flag came out for Sebastien Buemi after he crashed through the quick turn 9, damaging the right hand side of the car. The sceond red flag came after Kelvin van der Linde came to a halt on the exit of turn 7.
Behind Mortara came Sam Bird and Sacaha Fenestraz within two tenths of the top time with Antonio Felix da Costa and Dan Ticktum completing the top five.
Rene Rast was sixth ahead of Max Guenther and Sergio Sette Camara with Norman Nato in ninth and Mitch Evans in tenth.
Championship leader Pascal Wehrlein ended 11th with Nick Cassidy 12th, with Jake Hughes in 13th.
Then came a checkerboard of DS Penskes and Avalanche Andrettis with Stoffel Vandoorne 14th, Jake Dennis 15th, Jean Eric Vergne 16th and Andre Lotterer 17th.
Nico Mueller and Oliver Rowland were the last of those who completed the session, with Van der Linde and Buemi in 20th and 21st with Lucas Di Grassi propping up the timing sheet as he brought his car to a halt after a suspension failure.
