Greaves on pole at Silverstone ELMS

The 26 year-old set a best time of 1:48.752 to head the similar Jota Sport Gibson driven by Harry Tincknell.

The new Thiriet by TDS Oreca 05 of Tristan Gommendy claimed third with a 1m49.353s lap. The Frenchman might have got close to the ultimate pace but for a big slide at the Aintree left hander on his quickest lap.

Last year's pole sitter Harry Tincknell was expected to challenge the impressive Lancaster in the similar Gibson-Nissan but the British racer blotted his copybook with a lurid spin through the gravel on his first flying lap.

Tincknell, who will complete the whole of the ELMS for Jota Sport as well as Le Mans and the remainder of the WEC with Nissan, recovered to set a 1:49.212 to start alongside the Greaves LMP2 car but 0.460 away from Lancaster's time.

Completing the second row of the grid will be the No.34 AF Corse entered Oreca 03-Nissan. IndyCar refugee Mikhail Aleshin set the time for the Russian entered team which has been forced to run under the auspices of AF Corse this weekend.

In LMGTE it was the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Michele Rugolo that set the pole lap with a 2m00.151s lap. The Italian, who shares with Stephen Wyatt and Rui Aguas, set a succession of quick laps but eventually peaked on 2:00.151.

Such was the Italian driver's supremacy that even his second fastest time would have been enough for pole today.

Second in class on a 2m00.269s was the No.88 Porsche 911 driven by Klaus Bachler. The German and his team mates Christian Ried and Khaled Al Qubaisi are all taking part in both the ELMS and the WEC this weekend.

GTC pole was taken by Franck Perera in the TDS Racing BMW Z4 on a time of 2m01.939s. The former Toyota F1 test driver shares the car with Eric Dermont and Dino Lunardi.

The ELMS race which is held over four hours is scheduled to start at 14.30 local time today.