Martins had looked set for pole after completing his flying lap, but Crawford’s 1:43.579 was enough to take spot, as Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli rounded out the top three.
Martins set the early pace after the first set of laps, the Frenchman completing a 1:44.559 to lead Rodin Motorsport’s Alexander Dunne by 0.323s.
The drivers though were able to push on for a second attempt on their Supersoft tyres, and on this occasion, it was Arvid Lindblad on top thanks to a 1:44.250. Martins kept his place in the top two though, albeit 0.073s off the Campos Racing rookie.
Several drivers, including Lindblad, then set off on a third flying lap. However, they aborted those attempts to head into the pit lane for a new set of tyres, that is despite the Briton setting the fastest time in the middle sector.
With just over 11 minutes to go in the session, the drivers came back out on to the track on their new sets of Supersofts.
Gabriele Minì used that fresh rubber to rocket up to the top of the timesheets, only for Luke Browning to quickly drop him down to P2. The Hitech TGR driver eclipsed his PREMA Racing rival by 0.105s thanks to a 1:43.737.
As the rest of the field looked to complete their laps though, the Red Flags were waved following John Bennett’s crash into the barrier at Turn 17.
With the Briton okay and his Van Amersfoort Racing car cleared from the track, the session resumed and there were just five minutes left for the drivers to get their final laps in.
This led to a flurry activity with there being time for just one flying lap, and on his final attempt of the day, Crawford rose to the top with a 1:43.579, beating Martins by just 0.022s, to give DAMS their first pole position since Melbourne in 2023.
Fornaroli had initially been on provisional pole but wound up in third for Invicta, 0.092s off Crawford, while Browning ended up fourth. Lindblad was fifth ahead of Dunne and his Campos teammate Josep María Martí in seventh.
Minì ended up in eighth, ahead of MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor as Roman Stanek rounded out the top 10 for Invicta.
This means Stanek will line up on reverse the grid pole for Saturday’s Sprint Race, which is set to start at 18:15 local time tomorrow.
