ART Grand Prix's Nyck de Vries nabbed pole position for Saturday's Formula 2 feature race, pipping Arden's Anthoine Hubert by just over a tenth with a time of 1:14.143.
The Dutch racer extended his championship lead with the four points that come with pole, to further open up the gap between him and second-placed Nicholas Latifi who qualified sixth.
Uni Virtuosi's Guanyu Zhou slotted into third place on the grid as he posted a time just 0.062 shy of Hubert ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita and Luca Ghiotto in fourth and fifth.
Mich Schumacher starts seventh for Prema ahead of Carlin's Louis Deletraz and the second DAMS of Sergio Sette Camara.
Callum Ilott had a moment through the final corner which saw him go airborne as he struck the yellow sausage kerbs with his Sauber, forcing him to abandon his lap and get his car checked over before going out again to qualify tenth.
Debutant Patricio O'Ward impressed to qualify 17th, but importantly he was just two-tenths shy of his far more experienced team-mate Jordan King, 15th.
Tatiana Calderon was slowest in 20th, more than two seconds off de Vries pole time.
