Sette Camara takes first 2019 F2 pole in eventful France qualifying

DAMS driver Sette Camara was fastest after the first pair of flying laps, 0.459s clear of F2 form-man Nyck de Vries of ART Grand Prix.

De Vries bettered his lap and had one more attempt to beat Sette Camara's time, but a late red flag hindered any chances of improvement - Ralph Boschung had stopped at the exit of Turn 4, reporting that he had lost power.

With just 2m59s on the clock as the drivers left the pits, that allowed time for only one flying lap.

De Vries struggled to improve and had to settle for fourth, while incredible F2 rookie Guan Yu Zhou took second at the death.

The Virtuosi Racing driver, top newcomer in the points' standings in fifth, jumped to second with his last effort for a best result in an F2 qualifying session, while a qualifying-best first sector helped Aitken to slot in third ahead of de Vries.

Sette Camara spun on his final attempt, expressing his desperation while being pushed off the road by the marshals, only to be told shortly after he had pole over the radio.

His eventual margin was just over three tenths, after Zhou's improvement.

Callum Ilott's strong form continued with fifth, but didn't have enough performance left in the tyres to improve on his last attempt.

Ilott beat points leader Nicholas Latifi, the DAMS driver taking sixth having started the day in the Williams Formula 1 car for FP1.

Nobuharu Matsushita took seventh for Carlin, the Honda junior besting Ferrari protégé and Prema driver Mick Schumacher late on.

Aitken's Campos Racing team-mate Dorian Boccolacci qualified ninth for home race, while the second Prema-run car of Sean Gelael rounded out the top 10.

Drama had ensued at the beginning of the session, with a red flag coming out less than three minutes in.

Trident Racing's Giuliano Alesi clashed with Carlin's Louis Deletraz, breaking Alesi's front right suspension and wing while Deletraz lost the majority of his rear wing. Both blamed each other for the incident.

Then after the red flag, Nikita Mazepin's ART Grand Prix-run car began to expel blue smoke with a suspected engine failure as it reached the pits.

After a phenomenal job, the Carlin mechanics got Deletraz back out to join the fray, and he set a session-best first sector before the red flag for Boschung's stricken Trident. He had to settle for 12th, one spot behind title contender Luca Ghiotto - who failed to improve as his team-mate Zhou had.

Anthoine Hubert's Arden-prepared car was the last to hit issues, pulling off at Turn 1, with the team struggling for set-up this weekend. He starts 15th while team-mate Tatiana Calderon is 17th.

Qualifying result