They combined to take the Japanese manufacturer's third pole of the year by just over a tenth from Porsche's new high-downforce version of the latest 919 Hybrid.

Lopez was fastest after the first runs aboard the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid on a 1m38.083s, which Kobayashi followed up on with a 1m38.153s.

That gave them a 1m38.118s average and pole by just over a tenth of a second from Porsche drivers Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard.

Hartley was second-fastest after the first runs on a 1m38.292s, while Bernhard was a shade quicker on a 1m38.252s to lower their average to 1m38.272s.

Lopez, who has returned to the #7 car after driving Toyota's third entry at last month's Le Mans 24 Hours, said: "It was a good lap, but a bit of a surprise because Porsche had been so strong in free practice.

"It was my first qualifying attempt on quali settings, low fuel and new tyres, so I wasn't expecting to be so competitive."

Hartley and Bernhard ended up just six thousandths quicker on aggregate than the sister #1 car qualified by Neel Jani and Andre Lotterer.

Jani posted a 1m38.671s on his run, before Lotterer set the fastest time of the session with a 1m37.886s.

The second Toyota qualified by Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson was six tenths off pole, the Japanese driver setting his time on his third lap on the tyres.

G-Drive Racing again took LMP2 qualifying honours with its #26 Oreca shared by Ben Hanley and Pierre Thiriet.

Hanley, standing in for Alex Lynn, was fastest on the first runs with 1m44.331s before Thiriet posted a 1m45.671s to give them a 1m45.001s average.

That put them two tenths ahead of the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca qualified by Thomas Laurent and Oliver Jarvis.

Third place when to the best of the Rebellion Orecas, the #31 car qualified by Bruno Senna and Julien Canal.

The #35 Signatech Alpine squad, which qualified fifth, has been handed a 30-second stop-and-go penalty in Sunday's race for dangerous driving.

Nelson Panciatici impeded Nakajima's Toyota during a hot lap, almost forcing the Japanese driver off the road at the fast Turn 12 right-hander as he swerved to warm up his tyres.

Porsche heads GTE qualifying

Porsche claimed its first GTE Pro pole position of the season with Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre.

Christensen led the times on his run with a 1m53.779s, before Estre posted a 1m54.235s to give the #91 Porsche 911 RSR a 1m54.007s average.

That gave them a three-tenths margin on the #95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE shared by Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim, who ended up with a 1m54.352s average.

The second Porsche qualified third in the hands of Richard Lietz and Frederic Makowiecki on 1m54.518s despite using only one set of tyres.

Ford took fourth on 1m54.691s with Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke in the #66 Ganassi Ford GT.

The best of the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs was a further tenth behind in fifth with Davide Rigon and Toni Vilander.

Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana took their third GTE Am pole position of the season in the #98 Aston Martin.

LMP qualifying results:

Pos.	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	7	Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'38.118
2	2	Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley Earl Bamber	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	1'38.272	0.154
3	1	Andre Lotterer Neel Jani Nick Tandy	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	1'38.278	0.160
4	8	Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'38.703	0.585
5	26	Roman Rusinov Pierre Thiriet Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'45.001	6.883
6	38	Oliver Jarvis Ho-Pin Tung Thomas Laurent	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'45.197	7.079
7	31	Bruno Senna Julien Canal Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'45.649	7.531
8	13	Pipo Derani David Heinemeier Hansson Mathias Beche	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'45.690	7.572
9	35	Nelson Panciatici Pierre Ragues Andre Negrao	Alpine A470	LMP2	1'45.777	7.659
10	25	Vitaly Petrov Simon Trummer Roberto Gonzalez	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'45.861	7.743
11	36	Nicolas Lapierre Gustavo Menezes Matt Rao	Alpine A470	LMP2	1'45.940	7.822
12	37	David Cheng Tristan Gommendy Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'46.690	8.572
13	28	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Matthieu Vaxivière	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'46.714	8.596
14	24	Roberto Merhi Jonathan Hirschi Tor Graves	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'47.325	9.207
15	4	Marco Bonanomi Oliver Webb Dominik Kraihamer	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	1'47.485	9.367
16	34	Nigel Moore Philip Hanson	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	1'48.104	9.986

GT qualifying results:

Pos.	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Avg Time	Gap
1	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	1'54.007
2	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE PRO	1'54.352	0.345
3	91	Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	1'54.518	0.511
4	66	Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	1'54.694	0.687
5	71	Toni Vilander Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	1'54.757	0.750
6	67	Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	1'54.807	0.800
7	51	James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	1'55.037	1.030
8	97	Darren Turner Jonathan Adam Daniel Serra	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE PRO	1'55.382	1.375
9	98	Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage V8	LMGTE AM	1'56.721	2.714
10	77	Christian Ried Matteo Cairoli Marvin Dienst	Porsche 911 RSR (991)	LMGTE AM	1'57.129	3.122
11	54	Francesco Castellacci Miguel Molina Thomas Flohr	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	1'57.958	3.951
12	86	Michael Wainwright Ben Barker Nick Foster Jr.	Porsche 911 RSR (991)	LMGTE AM	1'58.027	4.020
13	61	Matt Griffin Mok Weng Sun Keita Sawa	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	1'58.335	4.328