ART Grand Prix's Nobuharu Matsushita will start Saturday's Monza feature race from pole position, which will be the first time the Japanese driver has started from the leading grid position during his Formula 2 career.
Matsushita grabbed the top spot early on in the session, with two red flag periods helping to ensure he remained there until the clock ticked down to zero, ending the session 0.089s ahead of Nyck De Vries and Louis Deletraz.
With rain threatening the session, Alexander Albon and Charles Leclerc headed out early, with both claiming the top spot briefly before Matsushita set the pace in sector 1 and 2 to go quickest by a small margin.
De Vries took second on his second run with Leclerc trying to get a tow but unable to stay with the Dutchman through the Parabolica, while Deletraz slid in behind them for his best qualifying performance of the year.
With 9 minutes remaining the whole field re-emerged again after a stop for fresh rubber, but a spin and a stall by Nabil Jeffri at Turn 2 brought out the red flags: Matsushita, Oliver Rowland and Gustav Malja were unable to pit in time and were forced to do another outlap while their rivals waited for their return.
Deletraz and Leclerc were the first two drivers back on track, but their runs were ruined by a second red flag caused by Santino Ferrucci, who ground to a halt on track. That ended the session.
Behind the top three are; Artem Markelov, Roberto Merhi, Jordan King, Leclerc, Antonio Fuoco, Ferrucci and Albon, tenth.
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