Kamui Kobayashi etched his name in Le Mans 24 Hour history by smashing the all-time lap record at Le Mans with a stunning 3:14.791 second lap in the number 7 TS050 and an incredible 1.6 seconds up at the Mulsanne.
Kobayashi’s lap proved even more significant given it was set on the slower version of the circuit since it was reconfigured with chicanes in 1990.
Porsche however could console themselves with taking second and third positions in the number 1 and 2, 919 Hybrids respectively at the one-hour mark.
Jackie Chan DC Racing dominated LMP2 for the first hour into the session before the CEFC Manor TRS of Simon Trummer usurped the Hong Kong outfit by the region of 1.2 seconds. The second Manor entry of Tor Graves and Jonathan Hirschi rounded out the top three.
Second-qualifying was marked by a number of tyre blow outs, potentially due to drivers attacking kerbs whilst still having significantly low tyre pressures. However, the only red flag of the session was caused by the number 33 LMP2 of Erik Maris throwing his car into the barriers.
GTE Pro was an all Aston Martin affair, with the number 97 and 95 AMR entries taking the top two positions ahead of the number 82 488 Ferrari of Toni Vilander. Aston was eventually split by the number 51 AF Corse of Michele Rugolo and James Calado.
It was a similar story in LM GTE Am, with Pedro Lamy enjoying a marginal eight-hundredths of a second advantage over the JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Will Stevens. That was until the number 90 Aston of Euan Hankey briefly took over the top spot before Stevens pulled out a 3:53.981.
Just as Sebastien Buemi was set to hop into the number 8 Toyota the session was red-flagged as the number 23 Panis-Barthez entry collected the wall at the Porsche Curves.
Le Mans Qualifying