Prema Racing’s Charles Leclerc smashed Stoffel Vandoorne’s record as he took his seventh consecutive Formula 2 pole position in Hungary.

Leclerc topped F2’s practice session but struggled to find the perfect balance and his pole run looked initially to be under threat.

However, by the end of the 30-minute qualifying session, Leclerc walked away with the four bonus championship points with a lap 0.463 seconds quicker than Oliver Rowland.

Rowland earned his second consecutive front row start, with Artem Markelov who leapfrogged the British driver in the championship at Silverstone, third fastest.

MP Motorsport’s Jordan King was fourth fastest with Leclerc’s team-mate Antonio Fuoco in fifth place.

Norman Nato popped into sixth position in the dying moments of the session, which was interrupted early on by Nato’s team-mate Sean Gelael who was stranded on the outside of Turn 2.

Nicholas Latifi and Nyck de Vries rounded out the top eight ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Nobuharu Matsushita and Sergio Canamasas.

Santino Ferrucci qualified an excellent 11th on his F2 debut for Trident. Team-mate Nabil Jeffri was a lowly 19th.