It was Fernando Rees who set the best time during qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, ensuring that the #50 Labre Competition car will start at the front of GTE Am with a time of 3min 52.843.
Ever the forgotten class of Le Mans, GTE Am provided another enticing battle for pole, with the eventual time, just 0.250 seconds behind the slowest GTE Pro. JMW Motorsport had been the team to beat coming into the final session, though the Ferrari 488 GTE would find itself quickly shuffled back in the order.
While JMW would beat their own time, all eyes turned to the #62 Scuderia Corsa, with Townsend Bell setting the benchmark at the halfway stage. The all-American team was quickly ousted by the Labre Chevrolet Corvette C7.R at the hands of Rees, Romain Brandela and Christian Philippon.
The Labre would maintain the lead, failing to beat their own time in the cooler evening, ensuring they get the honour of leading the pack away. Joining them on the front row will be the #98 Aston Martin Racing that had topped the first qualifying session, thanks to Pedro Lamy.
The #62 Ferrari 488 thus falls to third alongside the #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing ensuring that all four manufacturers occupy the first four rows. The top ELMS entry was fifth placed #55 Spirit of Race, with the team setting a late lap to beat the JMW team.
Meanwhile the top ALMS entry of DH Racing would manage seventh ahead of TF Sport in their Aston Martin Vantage GTE, despite not improving from their Q2 time. The fifth row would see the British entered Beechdeen AMR take ninth from the #93 Proton Competition after the team failed to set a clean lap in Q3.
Rounding out the field would be the Clearwater Racing pair, the #88 Proton Competition, #54 Spirit of Race, while the Gulf Racing UK car and the #65 Scuderia Corsa completed the 60 car grid.
