Shwartzma꧒n had the edge over his teammate up until the final run in qualifying at the ꦇall-new Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

The Russian driver took to the top of 🌠the timesheets after the initial runs, less than a thousandth clear of Theo Pourchaire. 

Pourcౠhaire took provisional pole position at the chequered flag, but was quickly beaten by Piastri, whose outstanding fiღrst sector handed him a 0.3s margin.

Shwartzman was on cour🃏se for his maiden F2 pole position but a smaꦿll mistake at the final corner meant he had to settle for second.

Piastri - who was announced as Alpine’s official reserve and test driver for 2022 in November🎃 after missing out on a full-time drive with Alfa Romeo - will start Sunday’s feature race from pole; he will line up 10th on the grid for the first reserve𒉰 sprint race. 

It’s a front-row lockout for Prema as it loo🍬ks to secure another teams’ title.

Behind the Prema duo was Pourchaire, while Christian Lundgaard made it two ARTs in the tꦗop four in qualifying.

Felipe Drugovich qualified fifth ahead of 𒉰title contender Guanyu Zhou - who will drive for Alfa Romeo in F1 next year.

Zhou now trails Piastri by 40 po𓂃ints in the title race going in🐬to the final rounds of the campaign.

Completing the top 10 was: Ralph Boschung, Juri Vips, Marcus Armstro𝄹ng and Liam Lawson.

On his debut in F2, Clément Novalak was a respec♔table 12th for MP Motorsport.

Dan Tic🧜ktum’s qualifying was ruined by a puncture on his final run, leaving him 13th.

2021 F3 runner-up Jack Doohꦺan qualified 16th, while Olli Caldwell🔯 was 19th in the Campos.

Logan Sargeant is the final F3 graduate as he qualif🐠ied 21st, recovering from a shunt in pra🌞ctice.

Click here for the full Formula 2 qualifying results 🦩from Jeddah