Free Practice 3 of the 24h of Le Mans saw Ferrari take the lead, under cloudy skies that threatened rain ahead of the fight for the Hyperpole which will take place starting at 8pm.
On the Circuit de la Sarthe the temperatures sound enjoyable, but the wind is pushing a disturbance that could shuffle the cards in the fight for supremacy, even if at the moment things could change quickly.
The fact is that all the protagonists of the FIA World Endurance Championship, plus those invited by ACO, obviously preferred to work on race pace in the 180 minutes available, also because the tire compounds continue to be an unknown, which most indicate medium as good for multiple stints and soft for night.
The session was interrupted for a few minutes due to a spin by James Cottingham in the #59 McLaren at ‘Tertre Rouge’; United Autosports Bronze lost control of his 720S when his rear end hit the left-hand barriers, which required repairs.
#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor
Photo by: Marc Fleury
In the HYPERCAR Class and at overall level, the 499P #50 driven by Antonio Fuoco took first place on the very last lap in 3’27″283, beating the Porsche #6 of Team Penske by 0″108.
The official 963 is followed closely by the BMW #15 of Team WRT, another car that improved in the final stages, moving ahead of the Cadillac #3 of Chip Ganassi Racing which had been in front for a long time.
Toyota #7 finished fifth, half a second behind, keeping behind the Cadillacs of CGR #2 and Action Express Racing #311, both with delays of around a second.
A little further away, completing the Top 10 we find the official Porsche #4 and the Alpine #36, behind which there is the Ferrari #51 which stopped for a long time in the pits with the mechanics working hard.
Good 12th place for the Lamborghini #19, the Peugeots continue in apparent suffering with the 16th and 21st times, the Isotta Fraschini closes the list with 4″178s of delay.
Jota’s Porsche #12 did not take part in the tests, being rebuilt after being demolished by Callum Ilott in Free Practice 2 on Wednesday night. The new chassis arrived around lunchtime in France and is currently being assembled by the English team’s mechanics, who hope to have it ready for testing at the aerodrome near the track on Friday morning.
#65 Panis Racing Oreca 07: Gibson: Rodrigo Sales, Mathias Beche, Scott Huffaker
Photo credit: Rainier Ehrhardt
In the LMP2 Class, the Oreca #65 of Panis Racing prevailed over the other 07-Gibsons in 3’37″217, even though first Rodrigo Sales and then Scott Huffaker were protagonists off the track.
The French team’s car is also the best of the PRO/AM, with a quartet of this subcategory occupying the top positions. The second is for the Cool Racing #47, with the AO by TF #14 and the AF Corse #183 behind by a few tenths.
Top5 for the Vector Sport #10, which is 0″7 behind the top like the Idec Sport #28. A full second is instead taken by Inter Europol Competition #34, United Autosports #22 and Duqueine #30, which together with the Proton Competition #9 complete the Top10.
#59 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo: James Cottingham, Nicolas Costa, Gregoire Saucy
Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo
The McLaren #59 mentioned above is the fastest in the LMGT3 class, even with only 13 passes under its belt. The 3’57″558 obtained at the start of practice was enough to get the better of the #60 Lamborghini of Iron Lynx by just 6 thousandths, with the #86 Ferrari of GR Racing and the #777 Aston Martin of D’station Racing who they are placed immediately behind at 0″1.
The McLaren #95 of United and the Ford Mustang #77 of Proton Competition are much further behind, respectively fifth and sixth at over 1″, the best Ferrari this time is the #55 of AF Corse in seventh, followed by the Lexus of Akkodis-ASP.
Among the best 10 we also have the BMW #46 of Team WRT that Valentino Rossi shares with Martin/Al Harthy, with the Porsches of Manthey EMA #91 and Manthey PureRxcing #92 only 12th and 18th.
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