Ford’s Ryan Briscoe has stormed to pole position for the 12 Hours of Sebring as every single car in the field smashed the 2016 qualifying record.

Briscoe was the only man to get into the one minute, 55 second bracket with a time of 1:55.939 – taking 2.5 seconds off Bill Auberlen’s qualifying time from last year of 1:55.939.

Dirk Mueller’s Ford was second fastest to lock out a Ford front row while Kevin Estre was the “best of the rest” for Ford in third.

Originally the Corvette Racing No.4 of Tommy Milner was third on the grid but the C7.R failed post race inspection for ride height violation and will be forced to start from the rear of the grid.

Milner’s teammate Antonio Garcia now moves up to the second row alongside Estre.

Briscoe’s performance was his second pole in the championship, following on from his pole at Circuit of The Americas last year.

The top nine cars in GTLM class were covered by a scant 0.721 seconds.

“We’ve been struggling a bit in practice. It’s been a war trying to figure out the setup but we really nailed it for qualifying,” said Briscoe.

“The car was handling really well. It made me really happy. So it should put us in a good place tomorrow for the race.”

Other class pole winners including Neel Jani for Rebellion Racing prototype, Gustavo Yacaman in PC and Tristan Vautier aboard his Mercedes-Benz in GTD.

Tomorrow’s 12 Hours of Sebring faces the green flag at 10:40am.

Pole goes to @FordPerformance‘s @Ryan_Briscoe. 2016 P1 was 1:58.402 – now an amazing 1:55.939! Ford is 1-2 on girdhttps://t.co/PLvEi65H1b pic.twitter.com/wcyZL8pPg2

— Michelin Alley (@MichelinAlley) March 17, 2017

All smiles for @GanassiChip @Ryan_Briscoe & @FordPerformance Dave Pericak after #67FordGT grabs the GTLM pole for #Sebring12. #TeamGanassi pic.twitter.com/RL13dS77XT

— CGR SportsCar (@CGRsportscar) March 17, 2017

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