Fernando Alonso sets lap record en route to Sebring pole

Fernando Alonso has grabbed pole position for the 1000 Miles of Sebring in the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, outqualifying the #7 sister car. The Spaniard also set a new lap record, lapping the circuit in 01:40:124, before Kazuki Nakajima took over and set a deciding average of 01:40:318.

This put the Le Mans-winning crew just under half a second ahead of the qualifying duo of Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez, who set an average time of 01:40:803, thus locking out the front row for the Japanese manufacturer.

The #3 Rebellion R13, driven in qualifying by Gustavo Menezes and Thomas Laurent set the fastest time of the LMP1 privateers, ahead of the #17 SMP Racing machine of Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev. The #11 BR Engineering BR-AER1 of Aleshin and Hartley qualified fifth, ahead of the the #1 Rebellion of Beche and Senna.

Jackie Chan DC Racing locked out the front row in LMP2, with the duo of Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry in the #38 ORECA beating out their teammates Will Stevens and David Heinemeier Hansson by over six-tenths. Third in LMP2 went to the #36 Signatech Alpine of Pierre Thiriet and Nicolas Lapierre.

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In GTE Pro, Porsche took the top spot as Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre set an average of 01:57:500, which was enough to hold of the pairing of Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx, who were just over one-tenth behind in the #67 Ford. The #66 Ford took third, two tenths behind the time of the #92 Porsche 911 RSR.

Aston Martin had a difficult qualifying session, placing tenth and eleventh respectively. The #95 Vantage AMR of Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim was just over eight-tenths behind the pole time, while technical issues left the #97 stranded in the pits and last in class.

GTE Am pole went to the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche of Christian Ried and Matt Campbell, beating out points leaders Team Project 1 in the #56 Porsche 911 RSR.