In bright sunshine and rising track temperatures, a tense qualifying session took place following a slight delay due to barrier repairs following an incident in a support race. Several leading cars had lap times deleted due to infringement of track limits during the session which meant double stints for a number of drivers.
- Hartley and Webber combine to take pole position in Shanghai for No.1 Porsche with an average of 1m44.462s. Hartley took two stints behind the wheel as fastest lap set in first stint disallowed due to track limits.
- No.5 Toyota places second after Buemi and Nakajima set average just 0.060s from pole
- Audi start third with No.8 R18 driven by Jarvis and Duval in qualifying
- No.2 Porsche endures frustrating session after having lap deleted for excessive fuel usage and will start P6
- Rebellion Racing take LMP1 pole position ahead of ByKolles CLM P1/01 which suffers technical issues
- Manor take first pole in LMP2 as young guns Alex Lynn and Matt Rao set time of 1m54.225s
- Signatech Alpine second as they look to secure class title, edging out No.30 ESM entry of WEC newcomers Galael/Blomqvist by 0.016s!
- Ford GTs lock-out front row as Priaulx and Tincknell take first pole of the season for the No.67 Ford Chip Ganassi UK with average of 2m01.391s
- No.66 Ford of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke second just 0.137s off their stablemates making it second consecutive Ford front-row qualifying lock out
- Championship points leader Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim line up third on grid in No.95 Aston Martin ahead of quickest of AF Corse Ferraris, No.51 of Bruni/Calado.
- Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy combine to take LMGTE Am pole position, their fifth of the season and third in a row.
- Class leaders Collard/Perrodo in the No.83 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia combine for second in class, ahead of No.88 Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR.