Kobayashi set the session's fastest time late on in a largely uneventful 45-minute session, recording a 3m18.687s in the #7 TS050 Hybrid.

That beat Buemi's previous 3m18.949s benchmark, which in turn was more than four seconds faster than leading LMP1 privateer Ben Hanley.

The #10 DragonSpeed car completed the most laps of any LMP1 outfit  with Hanley initially setting a fastest time of 3m24.954s.

But the car was investigated for speeding in the pitlane and had that lap removed towards the end of the session, which dropped the BR1 to 13th in the timesheets before Hanley improved on his final lap to record a 3m23.039s.

The similar #17 SMP Racing BR1 was fourth and separated from its sister #11 car by the leading #1 Rebellion-Gibson R-13, with half a second covering the leading four privateers.

Tom Dillmann recorded a 3m26.421s in the #4 ByKolles and ended the session seventh, with Charlie Robertson completing a timed lap in the #5 Manor Ginetta on his final run, recording a 3m29.305s.

Rebellion's #3 car charted five laps but did not complete a timed effort, while the the #6 Ginetta did not take to the track during the session.

LMP2: Taylor quickest for Ligier

Ricky Taylor set a lap almost half a second clear of his rivals to top the LMP2 class aboard the #34 Jackie Chan DC Racing Ligier. 

#34 Jackie Chan DC Racing Ligier JSP217 Gibson: Ricky Taylor, Côme Ledogar, David Heinemeier Hansson

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images

The Penske IMSA driver set his 3m29.466s lap in the middle of the session to displace the #26 G-Drive Racing Oreca that had its best lap set by Formula E championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne.

Vergne would then drop to third when Nicolas Lapierre took the #36 Signatech Alpine Oreca to second on his final-minute flying lap.

The second Jackie Chan DC Racing Ligier of Gabriel Aubry took fourth in class in the driver's first flying lap of the session. 

The sister car driven by Stephane Richelmi was fifth behind a late improvement from ex-Formula 1 racer Felipe Nasr in the Villorba Corse Dallara.

All LMP2 runners completed the warm-up, although the #48 IDEC Sport Oreca failed to set a laptime after Paul-Loup Chatin went into the gravel at the Dunlop Chicane.

GTE: Dixon beats the Ferraris

Ford set the pace in GTE Pro thanks to a last-minute effort by IndyCar star Scott Dixon in the #69 GT.

Dixon's best time of 3m50.533s leapfrogged him ahead of a trio of Ferraris, led by James Calado the #51 AF Corse-run 488 GTE Evo, to the tune of 0.169s.

#69 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT: Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook, Scott Dixon

Photo by: Marc Fleury

Toni Vilander was a further two tenths behind in the third-string #52 Ferrari, while Sam Bird made it a top-three lockout for the Prancing Horse in the #71 car until Dixon's late surge up the order.

Porsche, which along was Ford was hit with a weight penalty in the latest Balance of Performance, was sixth-fastest courtesy of Nick Tandy's best time in the #93 car, behind the second of the Fords.

Aston Martin set the eighth quickest time after its Vantage GTE was handed a double performance break after its poor qualifying performance, while the best of the BMW M8s was 10th.

Ferrari led the way in GTE Am thanks to a 3m53.218s effort from Jeroen Bleekemolen in the #85 Keating/Risi car, enough to beat Ben Barker's time in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche by a full 1.6s.

The polesitting #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche did not set a laptime.

Additional reporting by Tom Errington

Warm-up results:

Pos.	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	7	Kamui Kobayashi   Mike Conway   Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	3'18.687
2	8	Fernando Alonso   Kazuki Nakajima   Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	3'18.949	0.262
3	10	Henrik Hedman   Renger van der Zande   Ben Hanley	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'23.039	4.352
4	17	Stéphane Sarrazin   Matevos Isaakyan   Egor Orudzhev	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'23.314	4.627
5	1	Andre Lotterer   Bruno Senna   Neel Jani	Rebellion R13	LMP1	3'23.442	4.755
6	11	Jenson Button   Vitaly Petrov   Mikhail Aleshin	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'23.549	4.862
7	4	Oliver Webb   Dominik Kraihamer   Tom Dillmann	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	3'26.421	7.734
8	5	Leo Roussel   Mike Simpson   Charlie Robertson	Ginetta G60-LT-P1	LMP1	3'29.305	10.618
9	34	David Heinemeier Hansson   Ricky Taylor   Côme Ledogar	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'29.466	10.779
10	36	Nicolas Lapierre   Pierre Thiriet   Andre Negrao	Alpine A470	LMP2	3'29.868	11.181
11	26	Jean-Eric Vergne   Roman Rusinov   Andrea Pizzitola	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.072	11.385
12	47	Felipe Nasr   Roberto Lacorte   Giorgio Sernagiotto	Dallara P217	LMP2	3'30.582	11.895
13	38	Ho-Pin Tung   Stéphane Richelmi   Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.676	11.989
14	40	Jose Gutierrez   Enzo Guibbert   James Allen	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.918	12.231
15	23	Will Stevens   Julien Canal   Timothé Buret	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'30.919	12.232
16	35	Viktor Shaytar   Norman Nato   Harrison Newey	Dallara P217	LMP2	3'30.942	12.255
17	39	Vincent Capillaire   Tristan Gommendy   Jonathan Hirschi	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'31.186	12.499
18	22	Paul di Resta   Filipe Albuquerque   Philip Hanson	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'31.425	12.738
19	28	Loic Duval   François Perrodo   Matthieu Vaxiviere	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.361	13.674
20	32	Juan Pablo Montoya    William Owen   Hugo De Sadeleer	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'32.519	13.832
21	31	Pastor Maldonado   Nathanael Berthon   Roberto Gonzalez	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'33.617	14.930
22	29	Jan Lammers   Giedo van der Garde   Frits van Eerd	Dallara P217	LMP2	3'35.285	16.598
23	44	Andrea Bertolini   Tracy Krohn   Nic Jönsson	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'35.411	16.724
24	37	Nabil Jeffri   Weiron Tan   Jazeman Jaafar	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'35.876	17.189
25	50	Thomas Dagoneau   Romano Ricci   Erwin Creed	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'37.436	18.749
26	33	David Cheng   Nicholas Boulle   Pierre Nicolet	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'38.505	19.818
27	25	Mark Patterson   Tacksung Kim   Ate de Jong	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'39.966	21.279
28	69	Ryan Briscoe   Scott Dixon   Richard Westbrook	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'50.533	31.846
29	51	James Calado   Alessandro Pier Guidi   Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'50.702	32.015
30	52	Pipo Derani   Toni Vilander   Antonio Giovinazzi	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'50.931	32.244
31	71	Sam Bird   Davide Rigon   Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'51.010	32.323
32	68	Sébastien Bourdais   Joey Hand   Dirk Müller	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'51.320	32.633
33	93	Nick Tandy   Patrick Pilet   Earl Bamber	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'51.862	33.175
34	94	Romain Dumas   Timo Bernhard   Sven Muller	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'51.869	33.182
35	97	Jonathan Adam   Maxime Martin   Alex Lynn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	3'52.169	33.482
36	92	Michael Christensen   Kevin Estre   Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'52.230	33.543
37	82	Antonio Felix da Costa   Augusto Farfus   Alexander Sims	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	3'52.381	33.694
38	95	Marco Sorensen   Nicki Thiim   Darren Turner	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	3'52.448	33.761
39	66	Stefan Mücke   Olivier Pla   Billy Johnson	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'52.581	33.894
40	91	Gianmaria Bruni   Richard Lietz   Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'52.829	34.142
41	81	Nick Catsburg   Martin Tomczyk   Philipp Eng	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	3'52.842	34.155
42	67	Harry Tincknell   Tony Kanaan   Andy Priaulx	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'52.903	34.216
43	85	Jeroen Bleekemolen   Ben Keating   Luca Stolz	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'53.218	34.531
44	63	Jan Magnussen   Antonio Garcia   Mike Rockenfeller	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	3'53.286	34.599
45	64	Marcel Fassler   Oliver Gavin   Tommy Milner	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	3'53.688	35.001
46	86	Michael Wainwright   Ben Barker   Alex Davison	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'54.830	36.143
47	54	Giancarlo Fisichella   Francesco Castellacci   Thomas Flohr	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'55.209	36.522
48	56	Jörg Bergmeister   Patrick Lindsey   Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'55.289	36.602
49	77	Christian Ried   Matt Campbell    Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'55.791	37.104
50	90	Salih Yoluc   Euan Hankey   Charlie Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	3'56.517	37.830
51	99	Patrick Long   Tim Pappas   Spencer Pumpelly	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'56.847	38.160
52	98	Pedro Lamy   Paul Dalla Lana   Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	3'57.584	38.897
53	70	Olivier Beretta   Motoaki Ishikawa    Eddie Cheever III	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'58.695	40.008
54	61	Matt Griffin   Mok Weng Sun   Keita Sawa	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	4'01.485	42.798
55	80	Erik Maris   Christina Nielsen   Fabio Babini	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	4'02.635	43.948