Toyota drew first blood in qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as Kamui Kobayashi topped the timesheets in the first of three sessions.
A 3:18.793s time from the Japanese driver early in the two-hour Wednesday night run gave Toyota the early edge over Porsche.
Kobayashi's attempt was one second quicker than the pole time from 2016, set by Porsche driver Neel Jani, but still short of his own marker from the official test day.
Backing up Kobayashi's time was compatriot Kazuki Nakajima, who steered the #8 TS050 to a 3:19.431s.
Porsche's closest challenge to the Toyota ascendancy came from the German marque's #2 car, qualified by Timo Bernhard.
The 2015 world champion's best effort was 0.971 seconds off the pace of Kobayashi, leaving Porsche with pace to find during the two remaining sessions on Thursday.
Neel Jani qualified the sister 919 fifth, behind the #9 Toyota driven by Nicolas Lapierre.
RESULT: 24 Hours of Le Mans Qualifying 1
In LMP2, a late flurry of quick laps saw the order change multiple times, until Mathieu Vaxiviere eventually set a definitive marker.
Driving the TDS Racing ORECA 07-Gibson, Vaxiviere turned in a best lap of 3:29.333s to edge ahead of the two Manor ORECAs that had previously commanded the session through Jean-Eric Vergne then Vitaly Petrov.
Rebellion Racing's Bruno Senna and G-Drive Racing's Alex Lynn also slipped under the times set by the Manors, bringing the former onto the front row of the grid.
Provisional pole in GTE-Pro went to Aston Martin courtesy of a 3:51.117s set by defending world champion Nicki Thiim.
In a close-knit class battle, Sam Bird in the #71 Ferrari 488 finished second, just one tenth adrift of the Danish driver.
A larger gap extended back to the sister entries for each manufacturer, before the best-placed Ford of Andy Priaulx could be found in fifth place and two seconds off Sorensen.
Aston Martin also led the way in GTE-Am, as Pedro Lamy topped the class for the second time in a day following the Portuguese driver's strong performance during practice.






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