Nick Tandy and Neel Jani led Porsche’s second consecutive front row lockout of the 2017 World Endurance Championship at Austin.
The pair out-qualified Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber in the sister 919 Hybrid by two tenths of a second, marking the second pole for the #1 crew this season.
Jani had gone quickest out the initial drivers, but Tandy was forced to retake his flying lap near the end of the session after his intended effort was deleted for a breach of track limits.
After pitting for fuel, the Briton responded with a time that matched his team-mate to keep the #1 Porsche ahead of the championship-leading #2 car at the close of play.
Toyota qualified third and fourth for the second race in a row, as the TS050 Hybrids once again struggled to match the pace of the 919s.
Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima qualified the #8 car ahead of the #7 driven by Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway.
Kobayashi had the edge over Buemi before the driver changes, but Nakajima's gap to Conway, who lost time stuck behind an LMP2 car, was greater during the second half of the shootout.
The #7 finished 1.6 seconds down on the pole-sitting Porsche, while the #7 ran a further seven tenths adrift.
In LMP2, Signatech Alpine topped a close session that saw the top five cars separated by just over half a second.
Andre Negrao and Nicolas Lapierre pipped Mathias Beche and David Heinemeier Hansson in the Vaillante Rebellion ORECA by two tenths, despite Negrao's time being one of the slowest of the opening runners.
Bruno Senna held provisional pole at the driver changes in the sister Rebellion entry, but a 1:53.675s effort from Lapierre during the second set of runs turned the order on its head.
Lapierre's time was nine tenths quicker than any other second driver, lifting the Signatech crew to the top of the timesheets.
Senna and team-mate Julien Canal settled for fourth, ahead of the G-Drive Racing ORECA squad.
GTE-Pro pole position went to Ferrari's Sam Bird and Davide Rigon, who posted an average of 2:03.057s.
Rigon was the only driver to dip under the two-minute 02s threshold, before Bird turned in a low 2m 03s to confirm the pair's advantage over Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell in their Ford GT.
Mexico City winners Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim qualified third for Aston Martin, while James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi came fourth in the second Ferrari.
Porsche struggled for pace on Saturday, meanwhile, as the 911 RSRs propped up the field with average times over a second shy of the class pace.
Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana hit the mark for Aston Martin in GTE-Am, as the #98 Vantage scooped its fifth pole of the campaign.
Discussion about this post