Alexander Albon claimed his maiden Formula 2 pole position during Friday afternoon’s qualifying session at the Baku City Circuit.
DAMS driver Albon, who missed last season’s Baku round due to a broken collarbone, set a time of 1:54.480 during the closing stages of the session, lifting him to the front, two-tenths clear of the pack.
His lap came shortly after George Russell and then Lando Norris improved on Luca Ghiotto’s original benchmark.
Norris, Russell and Ghiotto wound up second, third and fourth respectively as several drivers were denied the chance to improve when Albon's DAMS team-mate Nicholas Latifi spun through Turn 7.
Latifi’s error brought out the red flags with two minutes left in the session – meaning there was insufficient time for further efforts.
Haas development driver Santino Ferrucci took fifth, with practice pacesetter Sergio Sette Camara sixth for Carlin.
Renault F1 tester Jack Aitken, Haas-backed Trident racer Arjun Maini, McLaren protégé Nyck de Vries and MP Motorsport’s Ralph Boschung completed the top 10.
Artem Markelov will start from only 18th on the grid after a scruffy hot lap left him mired down the order.
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