Kamui Kobayashi ducked under 70sec first with a 69.685sec lap in Action Express Racing’s second Ally Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, before championship leader Ricky Taylor moved to the top with a 68.999sec effort in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura.
Blomqvist responded in the MSR Acura with a 68.734, 0.232sec faster than Taylor’s next effort of 68.966sec, and Blomqvist trimmed this to 68.683sec, then 68.555sec.
Taylor then hurt his efforts with an off at Turn 5, and would pit while lying third. The second driver who had usurped him was Bamber in the #02 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, albeit 0.233sec behind Blomqvist who pitted.
The two AXR cars of Kobayashi and Derani pitted early, while the Ganassi Cadillacs of Bamber and Sebastien Bourdais kept pounding around to the end. Neither could improve, however, so will line up second and fifth, with Taylor and Tristan Vautier’s JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac between them.
Blomqvist’s pole ensured that Acura has beaten Cadillac to the Manufacturers’ championship, and also means that whichever Acura driver pairing finishes ahead in tomorrow’s 10-hour race, out of MSR and WTR, has won the drivers’ championship.
In LMP2, Steven Thomas produced a fantastic lap to claim pole for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports but Dennis Andersen of High Class Racing was a mere 0.082sec away.
The second PR1/M car of Ben Keating was a further three-tenths down, and just ahead of John Farano of Tower Motorsports.
Despite there being just eight LMP3 cars, they got the track to themselves, and the battle swiftly became a duel between Malthe Jakobsen of Sean Creech Motorsport and Kay van Berlo of Riley Motorsports.
Their battle got interrupted by two simultaneous incidents which brought out the red flag. Dan Goldburg spun the Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier at Turn 6, and Anthony Mantella dropped the AWA Duqueine at Turn 7.
When action resumed, van Berlo clipped over three-tenths from his fastest time to jump 0.06sec ahead of Jakobsen, then stretched that advantage to 0.204sec. Jakobsen would eventually come up just 0.108sec short.
This fight left their rivals gasping in comparison, Jarett Andretti finishing up third, 1.5sec off the ultimate pace but almost 0.8sec ahead of Orey Fidani of AWA.
With GTD Pro and GTD cars on track simultaneously – 22 cars in 2.254 miles – the track was busy from the start, and it was defending Petit Le Mans polesitter Madison Snow in the Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 who first snuck under the 80sec barrier with a 1min19.501sec.
He was initially chased by Roman De Angelis in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage and Jaden Conwright’s NTE/SSR Lamborghini Huracan.
Snow then lowered his time to 79.211sec and then the GTD Pro drivers started to shine. Alex Riberas moved to the top in the all-pro HoR Aston with 79.043sec, and Jack Hawksworth snatched second in the Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F.
Riberas then pitted the #23 Vantage, eager to preserve the set of tires on which he’ll have to start the 10-hour race tomorrow. The downside of such prudence was that he saw his time beaten by Hawksworth, first by a mere 0.033sec, then by two-tenths, as Hawksworth became the only driver to breach the 79sec barrier, taking GTD Pro pole with a 78.835sec.
James Calado’s Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 turned a 69.266sec lap – third fastest in GTD Pro, fourth overall – before pitting, with Jesse Krohn fourth in class in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW M4, ahead of Antonio Garcia’s Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.
Snow trimmed a further tenth from his time to confirm GTD pole – 0.16sec ahead of Krohn’s works BMW, and 0.388sec quicker than nearest GTD competitor, Robert Megennis in the Carbahn with Peregrine Racing Lamborghini Huracan. In fact it was a strong session for Lamborghini, Megennis qualifying 0.016sec faster than Conwright’s similar car.
De Angelis wound up fourth in class, ninth in GT, 0.014sec ahead of Richard Heistand in the pro-am VSR Lexus.
Petit Le Mans - qualifying results:
| Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 60 |
 Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist  Helio Castroneves |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'08.555 | |
| 2 | 02 |
 Earl Bamber Alex Lynn  Ryan Hunter-Reay |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'08.788 | 0.233 |
| 3 | 10 |
Ricky Taylor  Filipe Albuquerque Brendon Hartley |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'08.802 | 0.247 |
| 4 | 5 |
 Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'08.853 | 0.298 |
| 5 | 01 |
 Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'08.905 | 0.350 |
| 6 | 48 |
 Mike Rockenfeller  Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'08.984 | 0.429 |
| 7 | 31 |
Olivier Pla Pipo Derani Mike Conway |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'09.075 | 0.520 |
| 8 | 11 |
Steven Thomas Josh Pierson Tristan Nunez |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'11.939 | 3.384 |
| 9 | 20 |
 Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach  Fabio Scherer |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'12.021 | 3.466 |
| 10 | 52 |
Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'12.328 | 3.773 |
| 11 | 8 |
 John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Andrade |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'12.360 | 3.805 |
| 12 | 81 |
 Henrik Hedman  Juan Pablo Montoya Sebastian Montoya |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'13.570 | 5.015 |
| 13 | 18 |
Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel Christian Rasmussen |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'13.896 | 5.341 |
| 14 | 74 |
Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'15.517 | 6.962 |
| 15 | 33 |
Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Nicolas Pino |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'15.625 | 7.070 |
| 16 | 36 |
Jarett Andretti Gabby Chaves Josh Burdon |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'17.030 | 8.475 |
| 17 | 13 |
Orey Fidani Matthew Bell Lars Kern |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 1'17.809 | 9.254 |
| 18 | 54 |
Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'17.813 | 9.258 |
| 19 | 30 |
Ari Balogh Garett Grist Nolan Siegel |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'18.417 | 9.862 |
| 20 | 38 |
Daniel Goldburg  Cameron Shields Tyler Maxson |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'18.693 | 10.138 |
| 21 | 14 |
Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood |
GTD PRO | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'18.835 | 10.280 |
| 22 | 23 |
Ross Gunn  Alex Riberas Tom Gamble |
GTD PRO | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'19.043 | 10.488 |
| 23 | 1 |
Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Erik Johansson |
GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'19.118 | 10.563 |
| 24 | 25 |
Connor de Phillippi John Edwards  Jesse Krohn |
GTD PRO | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'19.279 | 10.724 |
| 25 | 62 |
Daniel Serra  Davide Rigon James Calado |
GTD PRO | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'19.352 | 10.797 |
| 26 | 76 |
Anthony Mantella Kyle Marcelli Josh Sarchet |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 1'19.357 | 10.802 |
| 27 | 3 |
Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg |
GTD PRO | Corvette C8.R GTD | 1'19.444 | 10.889 |
| 28 | 39 |
Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Jeff Westphal |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'19.506 | 10.951 |
| 29 | 42 |
Jaden Conwright Marco Holzer Don Yount |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'19.522 | 10.967 |
| 30 | 27 |
Roman De Angelis  Maxime Martin Ian James |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'19.546 | 10.991 |
| 31 | 12 |
Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'19.560 | 11.005 |
| 32 | 79 |
Maximilian Buhk Mikael Grenier Maximillian Goetz |
GTD PRO | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 1'19.620 | 11.065 |
| 33 | 32 |
Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer Dirk Muller |
GTD | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 1'19.823 | 11.268 |
| 34 | 9 |
Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr |
GTD PRO | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'19.942 | 11.387 |
| 35 | 57 |
Russell Ward Philip Ellis Marvin Dienst |
GTD | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 1'19.977 | 11.422 |
| 36 | 21 |
Simon Mann  Luis Perez Companc Toni Vilander |
GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'20.022 | 11.467 |
| 37 | 16 |
Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'20.025 | 11.470 |
| 38 | 47 |
Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Ulysse De |
GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'20.041 | 11.486 |
| 39 | 70 |
Brendan Iribe  Jordan Lee Pepper Sebastian Priaulx |
GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1'20.390 | 11.835 |
| 40 | 44 |
John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'21.431 | 12.876 |
| 41 | 99 |
Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Nicholas Boulle |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'21.470 | 12.915 |
| 42 | 66 |
Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Mario Farnbacher |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | ||
| 43 | 96 |
Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan |
GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | ||
| View full results | ||||||
