Jüri Vips topped a pulsating Qualifying session in Baku ahead of Liam Lawson and Dennis Hauger as the lighting-quick Ayumu Iwasa had an unfortunate shunt.

The Estonian produced a stunning lap timing the tow on the main straight perfectly and snatched a valuable two points for his efforts.

Plenty of cars joined the track at the green light on the purple ultra-soft tyre to begin Qualifying in Baku.

Jake Hughes set the first lap time of the half hour session with a 2:08.982 as the drivers continued to build tyre temperature into the Pirelli rubber.

The British driver’s effort was quickly beaten by Ayumu Iwasa who conjured up a very impressive 1:54.483 on his first push lap.

Marcus Armstrong slotted into second place fractionally behind Iwasa as Ralph Boschung went off the track with 18 minutes to go.

Championship leader Felipe Drugovich found himself in P3 ahead of Lawson and Jehan Daruvala in a hugely competitive session.

After a short lull, the drivers went out on track to begin their final run in Qualifying with no one running in the gap.

The red flags were brought out with five minutes remaining as the pace setter Iwasa crashed at Turn 3 after a very impressive qualifying session.

This cost many drivers including Hitech’s Vips who was on a flying lap attempting to improve from sixth position.

The session resumed with 5 minutes left as the field pushed one more time to snatch pole position on the streets of Baku.

A flurry of drivers went quicker than Iwasa and Vips set the quickest time with a 1:53.762 with a stunning middle sector ahead of Dennis Hauger and Drugovich.

Lawson jumped onto the front row just a tenth slower than Vips as Iwasa tumbled down to P13.

Hauger ended up P3 ahead of Marcus Armstrong and Drugovich with Verschoor in sixth place.

Logan Sargeant drove to P7 in Qualifying ahead of Daruvala and Frederik Vesti. Hughes rounded out the top 10 for Van Amersfoort on his first visit to the Baku City Circuit.

Image: Formula Motorsport Limited