Charles Leclerc will start the first race of Formula 2's latest era from pole position after finishing almost seven-tenths of a second cle⛎ar of the field on Friday in Bahrain.

Leclerc moved up to F2 for 2017 after winning last year's GP3 title, enjoying suppoඣrt from Ferrari as a member o﷽f its driver academy.

Racing for the defending champion team, Prema Racing, L꧃eclerc made an immediate impression under the lights in Bahrain on Friday by storming to the first poleꦏ position of F2's new era.

Leclerc set the pace in the early runs ahea🌳d of Prema team-mate Antonio Fuoco before opting to head out during a mid-session lull, completing his final run witౠh several minutes remaining to improve by six-tenths of a second, posting a lap of 1:38.907.

With the clock༒ ticking down in the final minutes of the session, the majority of the field headed back out to complete a late run, only for the session to be put under the Virtual S🌜afety Car.

Coming towards Turn 9, Nabil Jeffri inexplicably tried to dive down the inside of Gustav Malja, causing the two to make contact. With both car🐓s damaged and stricken on the circuit, the VSC meant no late runs could be completed, handing Leclerc pole.

Fuoco held on to second place to complet💙e a Prema one-two, with McLaren junior Nyck de Vries being one of the few late improvers, rising to third place.

Norman Nato will start Saturday's feature race from fourth place on the grid ahead of Luca Ghiotto and Nobuharu Matsushita. Artem Markelov qu﷽alified seventh, while a lock-up on his final lap meant Oliver ༺Rowland could only finish eighth for DAMS. Alexander Albon and Sergio Sette Camara rounded out the top 10 in qualifying.