In the trio of qualifying sessions held to determine the grid for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Nakajima in the No. 7 car bumped Porsche from the top of the time sheets and improved in the following session to secure Toyota's first pole position at Le Mans since the 1999 race. Buemi put the No. 8 car third, separated from Nakajima by Dumas' Porsche. Wurz started in the No. 7 car and led for most of the opening hours, and Lapierre spun from second after leaving a Mulsanne Straight chicane. Lapierre put the No. 8 car out of contention in the second hour, caught by a change in weather conditions between Marco Bonanomi's No. 2 Audi and Sam Bird's No. 81 AF Corse Ferrari 458 on the Mulsanne Straight and aquaplaning into the barriers. Lapierre returned to the pit lane, and the No. 8 car recovered to finish third overall. Sarrazin took over from Wurz, and lost the lead through the pit-stop phase to Porsche drivers Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard before reclaiming it in the fourth hour. As Nakajima drove the No. 7 Toyota into its ninth hour in the lead, the car lost power when an FIA-mandated piece of monitoring equipment melted a wiring loom and forced him to abandon the car at Arnage corner.