Barcelona F2: Ferrari F1 junior Charles Leclerc takes pole position

Prema Racing's Leclerc - who also topped practice earlier on Friday - went quickest with a time of 1m29.285 with the last lap of the session.

Leclerc's improvement prevented Russian Time's Luca Ghiotto from taking what would have been a maiden pole in F1's feeder series - rebranded from GP2 for 2017 - as the Italian driver had gone quickest just before the red flags were brought out when Trident's Nabil Jeffri stopped his car on the run down from Turn 4 with a mechanical problem with just over five minutes remaining.

Nyck de Vries, who also spent time at the top of timesheets finished in third place, ahead of early pacesetter Jordan King.

Leclerc was only second quickest after the first runs - which the Prema driver and his team-mate Antonio Fuoco completed later than the rest of the field as they opted to wait for the mid-session lull in action - after struggling with oversteer for much of his lap.

But the 19-year-old improved significantly on his final lap to take his second F2 pole in succession.

Alexander Albon finished fifth for ART, ahead of Renault F1 development driver Oliver Rowland.

Norman Nato was seventh fastest for Arden, with Fuoco eighth and Nicholas Latifi ninth.

Nobuharu Matsushita rounded out the top 10 for ART, as Bahrain feature race winner Artem Markelov qualified down in 13th place.

Former Manor F1 driver Roberto Merhi finished 15th in his first qualifying appearance in F2, where he is competing for Campos at his home event this weekend.

Jeffri - who had been struggling with an alternator problem in practice - ended up in 20th place with the slowest time.

QUALIFYING RESULTS: