Kamui Kobayashi smashed the Circuit de la Sarthe qualifying lap record to top the second of three sessions for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Driving the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, Kobayashi made the most of a clean track and favourable wind conditions to set a time of 3m 14.791s, some two seconds quicker than the previous record set by Porsche's Neel Jani in 2015.
The lap strengthened the #7 crew's position as provisional pole sitter, after Mike Conway paced the session's early stages and Kobayashi led the opening session on Wednesday.
It also put a bridge of 2.468 seconds between Kobayashi and Neel Jani, who lifted the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid into second position.
Third quickest was Timo Bernhard in the sister Porsche with a 3m 18.067, ahead of the #8 Toyota which underwent a swift engine change for a suspected oil pressure problem during the opening 10 minutes.
The fastest times of the two-hour dusk session all came after a 45-minute red flag period, caused by a heavy shunt for Eurasia Motorsport LMP2 driver Erik Maris against the Mulsanne Straight barriers.
A seccond, session-ending stoppage occurred with 10 minutes to go after Timothe Buret nosed the Panis Barthez Ligier LMP2 into the armco at Tertre Rouge.
Other minor incidents peppered the session, as drivers started to touch the limit in the bid to maximise their qualifying positions.
In LMP2, Vitaly Petrov elevated Manor into provisional pole position with a 3m 25.549s effort midway through the evening run.
The Russian driver's time broke the lap record for the category by almost four seconds, and put the British squad 1.2 seconds ahead of the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA 07.
Consolidating Manor's position was Jean-Eric Vergne in third, with the two Rebellion Racing ORECAs rounding out the top five.
An improvement from Jonny Adam kept Aston Martin at the top of the GTE-Pro timesheets, although the #97 now sits ahead of the #95, which led Q1.
Adam's registering of a 3m 51.860s put him three tenths of a second up on the second-placed Ferrari 488 driven by James Calado, who came close to beating the Aston in the closing stages.
In GTE-Am, Aston Martin's status as provisional pole-sitter was altered by Will Stevens who laid down a time of 3m 53.981s to put the JMW Motorsport Ferrari in front.
Moments after Stevens set his lap moments before the final red flag period, Euan Hankey slid the TF Sport Aston Martin into second, ahead of Mathias Lauda who was behind the wheel of the Aston that led much of the session.
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