It was McLaren protege Nyck de Vries that set the pace after the first runs, the Dutchman the only driver able to break the 1m56s barrier initially with a time of 1m55.991s, enough to put him four tenths clear of Jake Dennis.

The Arden driver was one of the first to head out on track on his second set of supersoft tyres in the closing stages of the session, Dennis provisionally claiming pole with a 1m55.514s.

His reign at the head of the timesheets was short-lived, however, as practice pacesetter Albon lowered the bar to a 1m55.274s, before diving into the pits with a few minutes still left on the clock.

Dennis and others attempted one more hot lap to depose the Anglo-Thai driver, and while some set personal best first sectors, nobody could sustain the pace required to threaten Albon for a whole lap because of tyre degradation.

It means Albon, taking the four point bonus for pole, closes to within 25 points of Leclerc in the race for the title. Antonio Fuoco, who came into qualifying needing pole to keep his slender hopes alive, is now eliminated from contention.

Dennis led an Arden two-three as Jack Aitken went third-quickest, 0.090s slower than his teammate, with ART's de Vries ending up fourth a mere 0.025s further back.

Leclerc lines up fifth after lapping 0.386s slower than teammate Albon, followed by lead DAMS runner Santino Ferrucci, Jenzer's Arjun Maini and Kevin Jorg in the second DAMS machine.

Steijn Schothorst (Campos) and Nirei Fukuzumi (ART Grand Prix) completed the top 10, with Fuoco following closely behind in 11th.

The remaining DAMS car of Jake Hughes was condemned to 20th on the grid after his team sent him out for his last run with a fan still attached to his sidepod, while Alessio Lorandi (Jenzer) failed to set a lap at all and will start 22nd and last.

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Alexander Albon	ART Grand Prix	1'55.274
2	Jake Dennis	Arden International	1'55.514	0.240
3	Jack Aitken	Arden International	1'55.604	0.330
4	Nyck de Vries	ART Grand Prix	1'55.629	0.355
5	Charles Leclerc	ART Grand Prix	1'55.660	0.386
6	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	1'55.678	0.404
7	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	1'55.683	0.409
8	Kevin Joerg	DAMS	1'55.892	0.618
9	Steijn Schothorst	Campos Racing	1'55.981	0.707
10	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	1'56.094	0.820
11	Antonio Fuoco	Trident	1'56.145	0.871
12	Artur Janosz	Trident	1'56.154	0.880
13	Alex Palou	Campos Racing	1'56.155	0.881
14	Matthew Parry	Koiranen GP	1'56.256	0.982
15	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	1'56.361	1.087
16	Konstantin Tereshchenko	Campos Racing	1'56.563	1.289
17	Sandy Stuvik	Trident	1'56.570	1.296
18	Tatiana Calderon	Arden International	1'56.729	1.455
19	Akash Nandy	Jenzer Motorsport	1'56.732	1.458
20	Jake Hughes	DAMS	1'56.995	1.721
21	Matevos Isaakyan	Koiranen GP	1'57.513	2.239
22	Alessio Lorandi	Jenzer Motorsport