Rebellion Racing driver Neel Jani took pole position for the opening round of the Le Mans Series at Paul Ricard.
The Swiss driver set a best time of 1m46.783s in Rebellion's lead Lola-Toyota LMP1 coupe to edge out former LMS champion Emmanuel Collard, driving for the re-formed Pescarolo team. Jani was less than three tenths of a second ahead of Collard in the Judd-powered Pescarolo and a further two tenths ahead of the ASM Zytek driven by Olivier Pla.
Jani, who is paired with Nicolas Prost, said: "It is a good start, but it is very close. The Pescarolo and the Zytek are close to us, closer than I expected."
The Aston Martin AMR-One, which is making its race debut at Paul Ricard this weekend, ended up only 11th quickest in the hands of Stefan Mucke. The German's time of 1m52.267s left him behind six LMP2 entrants.
TDS Racing claimed P2 honors with Mathias Beche. His time of 1m48.928s in the French team's ORECA-Nissan was nearly a second clear of Dominik Kraihamer in Boutsen Energy Racing's similar car.
Gianmaria Bruni took pole in the GTE class (formerly GT2) for the AF Corse Ferrari team. The Italian's time of 1m58.522s in the new 458 Italia was two tenths quicker than Tomas Enge aboard Young Driver AMR's Aston Martin Vantage GT2.