Oscar Piastri has claimed a career first FIA Formula 2 Championship pole position in Round 4 of the competition at Silverstone.
The Australian beat fellow Alpine Academy member Guanyu Zhou to top spot by 0.221s, and was nearly 0.6s quicker than his Prema Racing team-mate, Robert Shwartzman.
It makes Piastri the fourth different pole sitter in as many rounds after a session that saw Shwartzman draw the red flag to end proceedings two minutes early.
Lapping at 1:40.962, Felipe Drugovich led the first round of fast runs, beating Dan Ticktum’s practice topping time by more than a second.
Piastri’s first flyer saw him record a 1:39.854s, an effort that would ultimately prove unbeatable.
Zhou recorded his best lap just seconds before the session-ending red flag was shown after Shwartzman found himself buried in the gravel at Stowe.
Like Zhou, Richard Verschoor also managed to beat the red flag and nabbed himself a top-three spot, setting 1:40.259s to drop Dan Ticktum down to fourth.
Théo Pourchaire completed the top five for ART Grand Prix, ahead of early pacesetter Felipe Drugovich.
Roy Nissany scored eighth for DAMS, as Jüri Vips and Christian Lundgaard completed the top 10.
New Zealanders Liam Lawson and Marcus Armstrong recorded the 11th and 14th best times respectively.
Pole position will see Piastri line up 10th for the first race of the weekend, a reverse top 10 encounter, the finishing order of which determines the grid for Race 2 (with the top 10 reversed).
The Australian will then take prime position for the Feature Race on Sunday.
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