F2 Silverstone: Ferrari's Leclerc equals Vandoorne pole record

Prema Racing driver Leclerc, who has now taken pole at every F2 round so far this season, equalled Stoffel Vandoorne's record of six poles in a row, which the McLaren F1 driver achieved in what was then called GP2 between 2014 and 2015.

Norman Nato completed the top three for Arden International.

Leclerc was quickest after the initial runs in the 30-minute session had been completed but after a quiet period across the halfway point, Nato and Rowland went faster.

Nato was first across the line with a time of 1m38.906s before Renault F1 development driver Rowland beat him by 0.021s to go top for DAMS.

But just seconds later Leclerc swept around the final part of Club corner and shot to the line in a time of 1m38.427s to retake the top spot and equal Vandoorne's achievement with a 0.4s margin over Rowland.

Briton Jordan King, who won the 2016 GP2 sprint race at Silverstone, qualified fourth for MP Motorsport ahead of Austria race two winner Artem Markelov and Nicholas Latifi .

Sergio Canamasas was seventh for Rapax in front of ART Grand Prix's Nobuharu Matsushita and Sergio Sette Camara, with Alexander Albon rounding out the top 10.

McLaren F1 junior Nyck de Vries qualified 11th in the second Rapax-run car, followed by Gustav Malja and Luca Ghiotto.

European Formula 3 race winner Callum Ilott, who is making his F2 debut in a one-off appearance for the Trident team, qualified 15th, with Friday's session marking the first time he had used F2's soft Pirelli tyres.

At the rear of the field, Sean Gelael finished 19th after his car was seen emitting smoke from its rear for much of qualifying.

Gelael climbed out during the mid-session lull but although he got going again towards the end he did not set another representative lap time.

Antonio Fuoco, who caught a dramatic mid-corner slide going through the rapid right of Abbey in the early stages, qualified 20th and last in the second Prema car.

An incident between Gelael and Fuoco, where the Arden driver appeared to impede the Italian going through Luffield, will be investigated after the session.

QUALIFYING RESULTS: