It was a direct fight between Leonardo Fornaroli and Victor Martins for top spot, with the former earning his first Formula 2 Pole Position in the end.
The Invicta Racing driver secured P1 with a 1:44.008 to pip the Frenchman by over a tenth, while Hitech TGR’s Luke Browning earned third position at the chequered flag.
After several build laps, ART’s Martins set the early pace and benchmark to beat, going to the top with a 1:45.110.
Rodin Motorsport driver Alexander Dunne was just 0.002s down on that effort to go second but they were both blown out of the water by Fornaroli, who laid down a 1:44.642 for the top spot.
Teammate Roman Stanek made use of a slipstream to the line to go fourth for Invicta, ahead of PREMA Racing duo Gabriele Minì and Sebastián Montoya.
Half of the field opted to wait and as the first 11 returned to the pitlane, the others joined the circuit for their first attempts.
Josep María Martí was the quickest of the second group, going up to P2 for Campos Racing and 0.223s down on the provisional pole sitter. Richard Verschoor was able to go just behind in third for MP Motorsport ahead of Browning, Martins and Dunne.
With eight minutes left of the session, everyone rejoined the circuit for their final attempts of the day.
Martins improved to re-take the top spot with a 1:44.163 and he was comfortably clear, but Fornaroli denied him once more, going back to P1 to earn his maiden F2 pole position.
Browning went third-quickest in the end, ahead of Dunne and Stanek in the top five. Verschoor, Sami Meguetounif of TRIDENT, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagómez, Dino Beganovic for Hitech TGR and Joshua Duerksen rounded out the top 10.
The Formula 2 Sprint Race is set to get underway at 17:15 local time, with Duerksen set to start on reverse grid pole for AIX Racing.