The Australian teenager qualified 10th fastest in Azerbaijan which translates into pole position for the Sprint race on Saturday.
He’ll line up alongside Jak Crawford after an impressive debut performance in the F1 feeder category.
The slippery circuit saw drivers wrestling their machines around the lap, Isack Hadjar the initial pace setter with a 1:57.423s.
However, that quickly fell as others went faster, Richard Verschoor rising to the top with a 1:56.023s.
Christian Mansell found himself 15th fastest after his first timed lap, logging a 1:58.258s on his first run.
The Australian’s lap was ultimately deleted after he passed through a yellow flag zone in the first sector on his lap, triggered by Dennis Hauger.
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The Norwegian remained on track for another lap, clocking a 1:57.455s to sit 14th.
Midway through the 30-minute session, a second run saw Verschoor improve to a 1:55.655s to move the benchmark ever forward.
Victor Martins was second best from Kimi Antonelli, while F3 championship runner-up Gabriele Mini sat fifth.
Mansell climbed to 10th with his lap, a 1:56.788s to sit just over a second of the outright pace in what was his first F2 qualifying session.
With a reverse top 10 for the Sprint race, it put the Novocastrian on provisional pole for his debut race.
He was bundled back two places as others completed their laps before the session fell quiet for the usual mid-season lull as teams swapped onto their second set of soft tyres.
The pack filed back out with 10 minutes remaining for what would be their final qualifying runs.
Mansell was told over the radio that “everyone will improve a lot. You need to improve, too.”
After two build laps, the field began their push laps with five minutes remaining, only for the red flag to quickly be thrown when both Campos cars went long at Turn 1, finding the Tecpro barrier.
The bizarre scene saw both cars have the same lock up to skate long; Hadjar first and then Pepe Marti.
Hadjar reported losing the brakes, a comment echoed by Marti to suggest a fault by the team.
Out of the session, Hadjar sat ninth while Marti was 17th.
Under the red flag, the clock stopped with just over four minutes remaining; enough to circle around and begin a timed lap, but not enough to complete two build laps as had been the case previously.
Less than two minutes remained as the first cars on track, Enzo Fittipaldi, began their timed laps.
Mansell made the flag and improved with a personal best to the first split, carrying that pace to the second split.
One of the last on track, he was bumped to 17th before completing his lap to steal 10th place as the chequered flag waved.
Verschoor held on to pole position for Sunday’s Feature race with Antonelli second and Martins in third.
Saturday’s Formula 2 Sprint race follows the final session of F1 practice in Azerbaijan, beginning at 14:15 local time (20:15 AEST).
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