Jules Gounon secured a second consecutive ROWE Pole Position Award by topping Qualifying 1 at Magny-Cours.
The Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing driver posted a 1m36.023s during the first part of the split session and remained on top by a comfortable margin.
Indeed, Gounon's best time in Q1A was almost four tenths better than the nearest challenger. When Q1B ran, the #222 2Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Kiern Jewiss reduced the gap to 0.166s, but the Englishman could not prevent Gounon from securing back-to-back poles.
Jewiss did, however, ensure a Mercedes-AMG front-row lockout and bagged Bronze Cup pole. Max Hesse took third to maintain the #46 Team WRT BMW's run of strong qualifying results, followed by Lucas Auer in the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG.
Fabian Schiller (#12 GetSpeed Team Dubai) made it four Mercedes-AMG runners in the top five and secured second in Bronze. He was followed by the Comtoyou Racing Aston Martins of Kobe Pauwels and Oliver Söderström, the latter securing Silver Cup pole.
Gold Cup pole went to the #10 Boutsen VDS Porsche, which qualified 12th overall in the hands of Gilles Magnus. The Belgian driver was the best of the 911 runners in Q1.
Two big names will start further down the order than might have been expected. Championship leader and double Misano winner Charles Weerts qualified 17th in the #32 Team WRT BMW, his session defined by a particularly heavy impact with the kerbs on his final run.
This was still a better result than Bastian Buus could manage in the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche. The Danish driver will line up 21st tonight, his best effort being a second adrift of Gounon's benchmark.
Race 1 at Magny-Cours gets underway at 21:05 CEST and can be watched live on the GT World YouTube channel.