The son of 1980 World Formula One champion Alan Jones clocked the best lap time of 1:01.004 to edge rival John O’ Hara of Ireland by just .010 of a second.
The lap record of 60 seconds flat is owned by defending champion Pepon Marave of the Philippines who won the first race here last year.
Jones, who owns the Christian Jones Racing Team, blamed traffic for his failure to get near Marave’s record, but was nevertheless happy to start in front for the first time this season.
Mark Goddard of England, the 2002 AF3 champion, came in third fastest, but his time of 1:02.060 was nearly a second behind the two frontrunners.
Four Filipinos – Enzo Pastor, Marave, Roland Hermoso and Richard Joson – occupied the next spots on the grid.
Pastor, the elder of two brothers seeing action here and lead driver of Fujitsu Ten Toyota Team Tom’s, took the fourth position with a time of 1:02.223, his run torpedoed by traffic and an engine that under-performs on the straightaway.
Marave, who came in fifth best in 1:02.384, thought his time was enough for the fourth spot and opted to retire early.
Hermoso of Speedtech Asia was tops among promotional drivers with a time of 1:03.290, good for sixth while Joson of Denso Hanjin JF3 took No. 7 with a time of 1:03.503.
The other Filipino entries - Don Pastor (1:04.783) and Carlos Anton (1:05.313) of Speedtech Asia - came in 10th and 12th, respectively.
In Formula BMW qualifying, Tyson Sy of Minardi Team Asia came in fifth best in 1:05.753, more than half a second off pole sitter Marchy Lee Ying-Kin of Hong Kong (1:05.063).
Dado Pena, also of Minardi Team Asia, was ninth in 1:06.265 and lady driver Gabby dela Merced of Team E-Rain ended last in the 13-man field with a time of 1:07.315.
The Beijing stop is the third leg of the Asian F3 circuit backed by Motolite and Yokohama.