The Australian clocked a time of 1m55.945s beating Newey by a mere 0.075s and was the only one to dip into the 1m55s bracket.

Newey, having topped both the practice on Thursday improved on his time but couldn't go better than Mawson in the 30 minutes session.

Behind the top two, championship leader Mick Schumacher was third on his first outing at the circuit, keeping Italian F4 rival Juri Vips at bay.

The Estonian led a four-way pack, all separated by just 0.161s with Brazilian Moraes 'Pedro' Cardoso fifth, German Kimi Schramm sixth and Felipe Drugovich seventh.

In a closely fought qualifying session, the top seven drivers finished within a second of polesitter Mawson's time.

The Top 10 was rounded off by Dutchman Rinus van Kalmthout, Japan's Yoshiaki Katayama and Australia's Zane Goddard.

Qualifying results: