The DAMS Lucas Oil driver was a consistent presence at the top of the times, delivering a 1:44.331 to take the first ever FIA Formula 2 pole in Madrid. He beat Alexander Dunne and Rafael Câmara to top spot.

On the first set of push laps, ART Grand Prix's Kush Maini suffered a spin ahead of Turn 15 and hit the wall to bring out the Red Flags. In a separate incident, Sebastiàn Montoya tagged the barriers in his PREMA Racing car to sustain suspension damage. Maini was out of his car and OK while the Colombian recovered to pit lane entry.

The session resumed with 23 minutes remaining, and everyone eager to record a banker lap.  Nikola Tsolov was the early pacesetter, going quickest on a 1:46.328 for Campos Racing, with Dunne P2 for Rodin Motorsport, 0.002s down on the leading effort.

The second Red Flag arrived as Nico Varrone found the barrier at Turn 18 in the Van Amersfoort Racing #22. He was out of the car and OK, but everyone else returned to the pit lane while his car was recovered. Running resumed with 18 minutes left on the clock and once again, there was a rush to get another lap in.

Dunne took top spot by almost a full second as the track continued to improve. TRIDENT's Laurens van Hoepen went up to P2 nearly eight tenths off top spot. Beganovic then delivered a 1:45.182 to secure P1 by 0.2s over Dunne, with teammate Roman Bilinski going third-fastest with little over 11 minutes remaining.

The Swede found another chunk of time with eight minutes to go, setting a 1:44.578 to extend his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over his closest challenger in Dunne. A third Red Flag arrived with just over five minutes remaining, with John Bennett in the barriers. The TRIDENT driver was OK, but his car needed clearing from Turn 11.

Running resumed once more with 05:28 on the clock and time for one last run. Personal best sectors were flying in, and Dunne pipped Beganovic to take top spot briefly until the Swede finished his latest lap, lowering the time to beat to a 1:44.331.

Despite a big oversteer moment at the final corner, Invicta Racing's Câmara jumped up to third having been outside the top 10 prior to crossing the line. Stenshorne and Tsolov set identical times, however with the Rodin driver completing his first, he lined up fourth ahead of the Championship leader.

There was one final incident, with Colton Herta spinning at Turn 19 into the barriers to leave everyone else unable to improve. It left Roman Bilinski sixth ahead of van Hoepen, Noel León, Ritomo Miyata, with Emerson Fittipaldi completing the top 10.

The FIA Formula 2 Sprint Race is set to get underway on Saturday afternoon at 14:00 local time.