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The New Zealander will be joined on the front row by Hitech teammate Juri Vips with Oscar Piastri behind Lawson in third.
Theo Pourchaire qualified in fourth with Dan Ticktum in fifth, Marcus Armstrong in sixth, Ralph Boschung in seventh, Guanyu Zhou in eighth, Jehan Daruvala in ninth and Robert Shwartzman rounding out the top 10.
The second UNI-Virtuosi of Felipe Drugovich missed out on the top 10 as he qualified 11th with Christian Lundgaard in a lowly 12th. David Beckmann followed in 13th, Jack Aitken in 14th, Bent Viscaal in 15th, Richard Verschoor in 16th, Matteo Nannini in 17th, Lirim Zendeli in 18th, Marino Sato in 19th, Guilherme Samaia in 20th, Alessio Deledda in 21st and Roy Nissany in 22nd after he did not compete in qualifying.
As It Happened
Marino Sato’s weekend started horribly as the Trident driver was given a three-place grid drop. He trundled back to the pit lane with three wheels after he crashed into the barrier in free practice resulting in the stewards awarding the penalty.
Roy Nissany was out of qualifying even before it started as he also crashed into the barrier in free practice, but his DAMS car had more damage and therefore saw the Israeli driver sit out qualifying.
From the get-go, all of the drivers came out of the pits as it was important for them to get used to the track conditions and set early banker laps in.
Marcus Armstrong was the first driver to get over the line to start a fast lap. The DAMS driver set a 1:56.251 but dropped down to seventh as Theo Pourchaire jumped up to provisional pole with the Frenchman a tenth ahead of Liam Lawson in second and Christian Lundgaard in third.
Dan Ticktum would dethrone the ART driver from top spot as he completed his first run and went a tenth and a half faster to put his Carlin up to P1.
With 15 minutes to go in the session, Armstrong once again made it to the top of the timing charts with a 1:55.057 that put him ahead of Lundgaard in second and Pourchaire in third. Lawson was fourth ahead of Vips in fifth, Ticktum dropped down to sixth, Drugovich in seventh, Shwartzman in eighth, Viscaal in ninth and Boschung in 10th.
Armstrong failed to improve on his time in the second to last run as Lawson went fastest with a 1:54.332, two-hundredths ahead of Juri Vips in second and three-tenths in front of Oscar Piastri in third.
The Hitech of Lawson then improved even further to cement his place at the top as the Kiwi secured his maiden F2 pole position ahead of Vips in second and Piastri in third.
What’s Next
Robert Shwartzman will start tomorrow morning’s Sprint Race from reverse grid pole as the Russian driver will have Jehan Daruvala on the front row for company.
With another three races this weekend and the ability to overtake around this track better than Monaco, it sets out to be a very exciting two days worth of racing as the chance of scoring points is very high.
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