McLaren-backed Sergio Sette Camara secured pole position for the final round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina circuit.
The Brazilian posted a late flyer to grab the top spot by just 0.089 over Sauber's Callum Ilott as a yellow flag at the final corner scuppered several drivers attempts.
A spin from Sean Gelael at the penultimate corner brought out the yellow flags in the final seconds of the session, just as several cars were on their final attempts, but were forced to back off as a result.
Carlin's Louis Deletraz managed to get his lap in to secure third on the grid, with the leading trio split by just under two-tenths.
Deletraz beat team-mate Nobuharu Matsushita with the Japanese racer completing the second-row.
Guan Yu Zhou is fifth but he is believed to have just been caught by Gelael's yellow flags, although the stewards haven't confirmed this yet.
Formula E racer and F2 champion Nyck de Vries was sixth for ART as he opted to run out of sync and set his best time half way through the qualifying session.
Current championship runner-up and Williams 2020 Formula 1 driver Nicholas Latifi was impeded by the flags and starts down in seventh ahead of Jack Aitken and Nikita Mazepin, with Mick Schumacher completing the top ten.
Latifi's rival for second in the standings, Luca Ghiotto, started in 11th for Uni-Virtuosi as he too was caught out by the late incident.
F2 qualifying debutant Christian Lundgaard was slowest and starts 18th for Trident.
