A method and system for laser pre-cutting a layered material (31) with a laser beam (14) is disclosed. The layered material (31) comprises at least one tensile stress layer (TSL), at least one compression stress layer (CSL1, CSL2), and at least one interface region (IR1, IR2) between the at least one tensile stress layer (TSL) and the at least one compression stress layer (CSL1, CSL2) and is transparent to allow propagation of the laser beam (14) through the layered material (31). The method may comprise setting an optical beam path (8) and a laser characteristic of the laser beam (14) such that an interaction of the laser beam (14) with the layered material (31) generates an elongate damage region (57) in the layered material (31), and, for each of a series of pre-cut positions (XN−1, XN, XN+1) of the layered material (31), pre-cutting the layered material (31) by positioning the layered material (31) and the laser beam (14) with respect to each other and irradiating the laser beam (14) such that the respective elongate damage regions (57) extend across the at least one interface region (IR1, IR2).