It was Charles Leclerc who took pole position at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona due to a last-minute lap, beating Luca Ghiotto around the Spanish circuit for the FIA Formula 2 Championship.
The session was marred by a red flag caused by Artem Markelov when the Russian Time’s fire extinguisher went off, stopping him from running. When Nabil Jeffri stopped on track the officials decided to brand the flags with a few minutes to run.
Prior to the stoppage, British driver Jordan King had been setting the pace, with the Prema Powerteam pairing of Leclerc and Antonio Fuoco choosing to stay in the pits until the track was clear.
Even with the free space on track Leclerc could only go second, with Fuoco continuing to struggle with his car and only managing eighth on his opening encounter.
As the green flag emerged it was Nyck de Vries setting the early benchmark with Ghiotto usurping the time. Leclerc though was not one to be beaten easily though, jumping to the top after the flag dropped.
Ghiotto was forced to settle for second with De Vries and early pace setter King rounding out the top four.
Alexander Albon became the top ART Grand Prix driver in fifth after a strong free practice session. While early championship favourites Oliver Rowland, Norman Nato and Fuoco rounded out the top eight. Finally the top ten saw Nicholas Latifi and Nobuharu Matsushita complete the set.
