The green flag was waved at 22:00 to unleash the cars for the first qualifying session. Five minutes later, the traffic was already very heavy as only ten cars were left in the pits. The Audi R18s accounted for two of the late starters, signalling a tough evening for the German marque.

Stéphane Sarrazin in the #6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid was the first to record an excellent benchmark time of 03:20.737. After 12 minutes, Neel Jani (#2 Porsche 919 Hybrid) moved to the top of the standings in 03:19.733 despite being held up in traffic on the straight out of Karting Corner. After 32 minutes of the session, a red flag put paid to Mark Webber’s plans to set a fast lap in the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid. The session resumed at 22:43. Less than two minutes later, the #8 Audi R18 finally joined the track with Oliver Jarvis at the wheel. The car had been held up in the garage with front axle damage after Lucas Di Grassi hit a kerb during free practice. As Jarvis set off, Di Grassi made a point of congratulating each of the mechanics for their work. The first full lap was completed in the eighth-fastest time of 03:31.934, considerably slower than the night’s best.

There were more and more track incidents as time went on. Rémi Striebig (Pegasus Racing Morgan) came off at Dunlop. At the same time, Ricky Taylor went straight on at Mulsanne with the #63 Corvette C7.R. A slow zone was called to avoid a red flag. However, drivers have no hope of bettering their lap times with a speed limit on part of the circuit.

It seemed that each time the track was clear, another incident occured to hamper overall performance.

G-Drive Racing led the way in LM P2 with the #26 Oreca 05. The #35 and #36 Alpines followed. With 15 minutes to go René Rast managed to better his car’s time with 03:36.605. 

In LM GTE Pro too, things hotted up in the first quarter of an hour. Two Fords took the lead: the #67 GT, with Harry Tincknell at the wheel (03:51.590), and the #66, driven by Olivier Pla (03:52.038). Gianmaria Bruni was quick to react, setting 03:51.568 in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE. Ford moved back in front before midnight struck, with #68 and #69, fielded by Chip Ganassi Team USA, the fastest.

Emmanuel Collard in the #83 Ferrari 458 Italia held the lead in LM GTE Am for a while with 03:57.742. He was knocked off his perch by the #55 Ferrari AF Corse, who was then bettered by Rob Bell in the gorgeous #61 Ferrari 458 Italia fielded by Clearwater Racing. Finally, the #98 Aston Martin slipped between the leading Ferraris. The Vantage V8s had been rather discreet until that point.

Act II of the qualifiers will take place tomorrow from 19:00 to 21:00, followed by a final night session from 22:00 to 24:00.