Since its maiden appearance at Circuit of The Americas two years ago, the Ferrari 499P has never been beaten to the top spot on the starting grid in Texas, and in searingly hot conditions, Giovinazzi ensured the continuation of that dominant run this weekend – by the tiniest possible margin.

When the Italian displaced Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA's Jack Aitken to vault to the head of the order behind the wheel of the #51 car he shares with fellow defending world champions James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, the job looked to be done – but Aitken was not yet finished.

Digging deep, the Briton matched Giovinazzi's pace-setting effort to literally the thousandth-of-a-second, but with the latter having posted the time first, it is the Ferrari that will line up on pole, with Aitken's #38 Cadillac V-Series.R alongside – setting the scene for a sensational scrap for supremacy.

Underscoring the fiercely close nature of the ten-minute shootout, Charles Milesi snatched third in the #35 Alpine A424 – a mere 0.029s adrift of the benchmark time – with Harry Tincknell next up in Aston Martin's #007 Valkyrie.

The 0.050s that separated the top four Hypercars – all fielded by different manufacturers – represents the closest gap in the series' 106 events to-date, beating the record previously set at Imola back in April.

In LMGT3, meanwhile, Aston Martin outfit Heart of Racing Team locked out the front row of the grid, as Eduardo Barrichello secured the British marque's third straight pole position in the series and his third pole from four Hyperpole appearances in FIA WEC – an unrivalled achievement in the fiercely-contested production-based category.

Lone Star Le Mans will get underway at 13:00 local time (GMT-5) on Sunday, 6 September.