Rookie Antonio Giovinazzi has adapted quickly to the Baku City Circuit: P2 in the free practice session this morning, he emerged on top in a dramatic qualifying session this afternoon. The Italian set a blazing laptime of 1:51.752 denying Nobuharu Matsushita by 0.08s in the dying minutes. Sergey Sirotkin took P3.

The early evening session opened under grey skies and in windy conditions. The drivers fed onto the track on Pirelli Supersoft tyres and it was Oliver Rowland who set the early pace in a 1:54.156 through heavy traffic, but his laptime was soon bettered by three tenths by Matsushita. Pierre Gasly then became the first man to dip under 1m53s.

Halfway thru the session, the yellow flags were out after Daniël de Jong and Philo Paz Armand went off at Turn 3. De Jong managed to re-join the track safely, but Armand did not which led to a red flag period. At the restart, Giovinazzi found a clear lap and some extra pace to sit pretty at the top with a laptime of 1:52.692.

In the closing stages, the majority of the drivers improved on their personal best. Sirotkin topped the timesheets in a 1:52.532 but Giovinazzi went quickest again in a 1:51.894. Matsushita improved on the Italian’s laptime and went P1. With three minutes left on the clock, Giovinazzi put his head down and reclaimed the top spot in a 1:51.752 - +0.08s better than Matsushita who returned to the pits.

At the chequered flag, Sirotkin took third ahead of Raffaele Marciello, Luca Ghiotto, Rowland, Marvin Kirchhöfer, Gasly, Norman Nato and Sergio Canamasas.

1. Antonio Giovinazzi PREMA Racing 1:51.752
2. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:51.841
3. Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 1:52.532
4. Raffaele Marciello RUSSIAN TIME 1:52.555
5. Luca Ghiotto Trident 1:52.691
6. Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 1:52.739
7. Marvin Kirchhöfer Carlin 1:52.756
8. Pierre Gasly PREMA Racing 1:52.760
9. Norman Nato Racing Engineering 1:52.929
10. Sergio Canamasas Carlin 1:52.962
11. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:52.962
12. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:53.040
13. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:53.092
14. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:53.226
15. Mitch Evans Pertamina Campos Racing 1:53.401
16. Arthur Pic Rapax 1:53.702
17. Daniël de Jong MP Motorsport 1:54.000
18. Jimmy Eriksson Arden International 1:54.034
19 Gustav Malja Rapax 1:54.213
20. Sean Gelael Pertamina Campos Racing 1:54.717
21. Nabil Jeffri Arden International 1:55.333
22. Philo Paz Armand Trident 1:57.692