Antonio Fuoco set what turned out to be the benchmark time of 1m45.067s at the wheel of the quicker of the two brand-new Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercars, which are making their race debut this weekend.
Fuoco's lap in the #50 car, which he shares with Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, knocked the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley off provisional pole to the tune of almost three tenths of a second.
Hartley was able to shave almost a tenth off his best time to get down to a 1m45.281s, but Toyota had to admit defeat as the tyres went past their peak in the closing stages of the 15-minute Hypercar session.
Kamui Kobayashi was third-fastest in the #7 Toyota, 0.481s away from pole, ahead of the #51 Ferrari in which Alessandro Pier Guidi was eight tenths off the pace with a minor off at Turn 7.
Cadillac secured fifth on the grid with its solo Chip Ganassi Racing-run V.Series.R, Alex Lynn beating the two Porsche 963s to the honour of top LMDh runner.
Lynn spent the first part of the session in the pits with an apparent issue but managed to return to the track with six minutes remaining to set a 1m46.082s, which was over a second quicker than either Kevin Estre or Michael Christensen managed in their Porsches.
Peugeot was a disappointing eighth and ninth with its two 9X8 LMHs, the faster of which was 2.3s off the pace with Loic Duval at the wheel.
The sister #93 car of Mikkel Jensen briefly stopped on track at the start of the session before resuming.
Glickenhaus and Vanwall rounded out the 11-car Hypercar field, both over four seconds off the pace.
United Autosports, Iron Dames get class poles
Oliver Jarvis bagged LMP2 pole for United Autosports in the #23 ORECA 07-Gibson he shares with Tom Blomqvist and Josh Pierson.
A best time of 1m49.974s from Jarvis was enough to overhaul JOTA's full-season #28 ORECA of Pietro Fittipaldi by 0.093s.
The 12-car field was split between those cars that opted to change tyres midway through the 15-minute session and those that didn't, but the top two runners fell in the latter category.
WRT opted for mid-session pitstops for both cars, with the faster #31 car of Robin Frijns coming third ahead of the lead Alpine entry, the #36 car of Matthieu Vaxiviere, which likewise opted for a tyre change.
JOTA's #48 car, which is running at Sebring in place of the team's yet-to-be delivered Porsche 963, was fifth-fastest in the hands of Yifei Ye.
In GTE Am, the first pole of the new season went the way of the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting.
Bovy came out on top in an entertaining tussle with Corvette Racing's Ben Keating with a best lap of 1m58.949s, which was enough to beat the only C8.R in the field by 0.396s.
Third-fastest was the #25 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Ahmad Al Harthy, while Luis Perez Companc ensured all four manufacturers were represented in the top four in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE.
The Sebring 1000 Miles starts on Friday at 12pm local time (GMT -5).
WEC Sebring - Hypercar qualifying results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50 |
 Antonio Fuoco  Miguel Molina  Nicklas Nielsen
|
Ferrari 499P | 1'45.067 | |
| 2 | 8 |
 Sébastien Buemi  Brendon Hartley  Ryo Hirakawa
|
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | 1'45.281 | 0.214 |
| 3 | 7 |
 Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez
|
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | 1'45.548 | 0.481 |
| 4 | 51 |
Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi
|
Ferrari 499P | 1'45.874 | 0.807 |
| 5 | 2 |
Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook
|
Cadillac V-Series.R | 1'46.082 | 1.015 |
| 6 | 6 |
 Kevin Estre  Andre Lotterer  Laurens Vanthoor
|
Porsche 963 | 1'47.193 | 2.126 |
| 7 | 5 |
 Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki
|
Porsche 963 | 1'47.210 | 2.143 |
| 8 | 94 |
Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller
|
Peugeot 9X8 | 1'47.455 | 2.388 |
| 9 | 93 |
Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne
|
Peugeot 9X8 | 1'48.205 | 3.138 |
| 10 | 708 |
Romain Dumas  Ryan Briscoe Olivier Pla
|
Glickenhaus 007 | 1'49.164 | 4.097 |
| 11 | 4 |
Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri  Jacques Villeneuve
|
Vanwall Vandervell 680 | 1'49.329 | 4.262 |
| View full results | |||||
WEC Sebring - LMP2 qualifying results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Avg Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 23 |
Josh Pierson Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis
|
Oreca 07 | 1'49.974 | |
| 2 | 28 |
David Heinemeier Hansson  Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen
|
Oreca 07 | 1'50.067 | 0.093 |
| 3 | 31 |
 Sean Gelael  Ferdinand Habsburg  Robin Frijns
|
Oreca 07 | 1'50.155 | 0.181 |
| 4 | 36 |
Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi
|
Oreca 07 | 1'50.174 | 0.200 |
| 5 | 48 |
David Beckmann  Ye Yifei Will Stevens
|
Oreca 07 | 1'50.218 | 0.244 |
| 6 | 41 |
 Rui Andrade  Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz
|
Oreca 07 | 1'50.291 | 0.317 |
| 7 | 22 |
Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque
|
Oreca 07 | 1'50.408 | 0.434 |
| 8 | 9 |
Filip Ugran Bent Viscaal Andrea Caldarelli
|
Oreca 07 | 1'50.417 | 0.443 |
| 9 | 10 |
 Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry
|
Oreca 07 | 1'50.710 | 0.736 |
| 10 | 63 |
Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti  Daniil Kvyat
|
Oreca 07 | 1'50.726 | 0.752 |
| 11 | 34 |
Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa
|
Oreca 07 | 1'50.889 | 0.915 |
| 12 | 35 |
Andre Negrao  Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell
|
Oreca 07 | 1'51.284 | 1.310 |
| View full results | |||||
WEC Sebring - GTE Am qualifying results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Avg Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 85 |
Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey
|
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'58.949 | |
| 2 | 33 |
Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg
|
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | 1'59.345 | 0.396 |
| 3 | 25 |
Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood
|
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | 1'59.657 | 0.708 |
| 4 | 83 |
Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera
|
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 1'59.733 | 0.784 |
| 5 | 21 |
Stefano Costantini Simon Mann Ulysse De |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 1'59.992 | 1.043 |
| 6 | 56 |
PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette Matteo Cairoli
|
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 2'00.588 | 1.639 |
| 7 | 57 |
Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra
|
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 2'00.591 | 1.642 |
| 8 | 98 |
Paul Dalla Lana  Axcil Jefferies Nicki Thiim
|
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | 2'00.807 | 1.858 |
| 9 | 777 |
Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii
|
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | 2'00.941 | 1.992 |
| 10 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon
|
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 2'01.041 | 2.092 |
| 11 | 77 |
Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer
|
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 2'01.054 | 2.105 |
| 12 | 86 |
Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker
|
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 2'02.588 | 3.639 |
| 13 | 60 |
Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello
|
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 2'02.820 | 3.871 |
| 14 | 88 |
Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Harry Tincknell
|
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | ||
| View full results | |||||
