Le Mans 24 Hours: Toyota quickest in crash-strewn third practice
Toyota locked out the top two spots in an incident-packed third practice session for the Le Mans 24 Hours on Thursday afternoon.
Photo by: Paul Foster
In the final on-track running before Hyperpole qualifying, Kamui Kobayashi recorded a best effort of 3m26.796s at the wheel of the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID - around half a second quicker than he managed during first qualifying on Wednesday.
Brendon Hartley backed that up with a 3m27.115s in the sister #8 car to go second-quickest ahead of the two Glickenhaus 007 LMHs.
The American boutique marque's best lap was a 3m27.466s from Olivier Pla in the #708 car, a little under seven tenths off the pace and marginally slower than his first qualifying benchmark, while Ryan Briscoe posted a 3m28.073s in the sister #709 machine.
Propping up the order in the five-car Hypercar class was Alpine's grandfathered A480-Gibson LMP1, despite receiving a power increase in a revised Balance of Performance issued as the three-hour session began.
Matthieu Vaxiviere was 2.4 seconds down on Kobayashi with a 3m29.259s, only a minor improvement on Nicolas Lapierre's effort in the #36 machine in first qualifying.
Toyota's #8 car lost time with an electrical glitch that prompted Ryo Hirakawa to briefly stop on track between Indianapolis and Arnage corners before bringing the stricken machine back for a trip to the garage.
That was prior to a 20-minute red flag period caused by a major crash for the #13 TDS Racing Oreca LMP2 of Philippe Cimadomo at Corvette Curve, the result of slight contact with the #31 WRT car of Sean Gelael.
Topping the times in the LMP2 class were United Autosports' pair of ORECA 07s, which both set their fastest times in the final five minutes of the session.
Filipe Albuquerque was quickest in the class on a 3m20.964s aboard the #22 United entry, going less than a tenth faster than Alex Lynn in the #23 car.
#22 United Autosports USA Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2: Filipe Albuquerque
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Robin Frijns, who set his best lap of 3m31.030s immediately after the red flag period, was demoted to third place in the #31 WRT car, ahead of Yifei Ye in the #37 Cool Racing entry and the best of the Jota machines, the #38 car of Antonio Felix da Costa.
Most of the other major incidents during the session involved LMP2 runners.
Duqueine man Reshad de Gerus suffered an early off at Indianapolis, while following the red flag period Sebastien Page crashed the Graff car at the same part of the track, with both incidents being covered off with slow zones.
Miro Konopka also had an excursion through the gravel at the Dunlop chicane in the ARC Bratislava car, although he was able to get going again.
Corvette Racing was again the team to beat in GTE Pro as Nick Tandy set a best time in class of 3m52.307s aboard the American marque's full-time WEC entry, the #64 C8.R.
A little under half a second down in second was the best of the factory Porsche 911 RSR-19s, the #91 machine of Richard Lietz, followed by the #63 Corvette of Antonio Garcia and the #92 Porsche of Michael Christensen.
Ferrari's pair of works 488 GTE Evos occupied fifth and sixth places in class, with Antonio Fuoco giving the Italian marque its best laptime aboard the #52 entry.
Mikkel Pedersen set the pace in GTE Am with a 3m54.386s aboard the #46 Team Project 1 Porsche, beating the TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Henrique Chaves by just over two tenths.
Hyperpole qualifying, involving the top six cars from each class, begins at 8pm local time.
Le Mans 24 Hours - FP3 results
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 | Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 3'26.796 | |
2 | 8 | Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 3'27.115 | 0.319 |
3 | 708 | Olivier Pla Romain Dumas Pipo Derani |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 3'27.466 | 0.670 |
4 | 709 | Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Franck Mailleux |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 3'28.073 | 1.277 |
5 | 36 | Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 3'29.259 | 2.463 |
6 | 22 | Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Will Owen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'30.964 | 4.168 |
7 | 23 | Alex Lynn Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.025 | 4.229 |
8 | 31 | Sean Gelael Robin Frijns René Rast |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.030 | 4.234 |
9 | 37 | Ye Yifei Ricky Taylor Niklas Krütten |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.057 | 5.261 |
10 | 38 | Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.151 | 5.355 |
11 | 41 | Rui Andrade Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.169 | 5.373 |
12 | 83 | François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.349 | 5.553 |
13 | 13 | Philippe Cimadomo Mathias Beche Tijmen van der Helm |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.384 | 5.588 |
14 | 48 | Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Patrick Pilet |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.055 | 6.259 |
15 | 5 | Dane Cameron Emmanuel Collard Felipe Nasr |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.247 | 6.451 |
16 | 28 | Oliver Rasmussen Edward Jones Jonathan Aberdein |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.249 | 6.453 |
17 | 43 | David Heinemeier Hansson Fabio Scherer Pietro Fittipaldi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.253 | 6.457 |
18 | 9 | Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Lorenzo Colombo |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.369 | 6.573 |
19 | 24 | Rodrigo Sales Matthew Bell Ben Hanley |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.737 | 6.941 |
20 | 32 | Rolf Ineichen Mirko Bortolotti Dries Vanthoor |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.794 | 6.998 |
21 | 1 | Lilou Wadoux Sébastien Ogier Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.395 | 7.599 |
22 | 35 | Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.486 | 7.690 |
23 | 10 | Nico Müller Ryan Cullen Sébastien Bourdais |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.511 | 7.715 |
24 | 45 | Thomas Steven James Allen Rene Binder |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.543 | 7.747 |
25 | 30 | Richard Bradley Guillermo Rojas Reshad de Gerus |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.788 | 7.992 |
26 | 39 | Eric Trouillet Sébastien Page David Droux |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'35.071 | 8.275 |
27 | 34 | Jakub Smiechowski Alex Brundle Esteban Gutierrez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'36.285 | 9.489 |
28 | 65 | Julien Canal Nico Jamin Job Van Uitert |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'36.451 | 9.655 |
29 | 47 | Sophia Flörsch John Falb Jack Aitken |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'36.841 | 10.045 |
30 | 3 | Laurents Hörr Jean Glorieux Alexandre Cougnaud |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'38.054 | 11.258 |
31 | 27 | Cresp Christophe Michael Jensen Steven Palette |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'39.056 | 12.260 |
32 | 44 | Miro Konopka Bent Viscaal Tristan Vautier |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'47.210 | 20.414 |
33 | 64 | Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Alexander Sims |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 3'52.307 | 25.511 |
34 | 91 | Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'52.787 | 25.991 |
35 | 63 | Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 3'52.824 | 26.028 |
36 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre Laurens Vanthoor |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'52.898 | 26.102 |
37 | 52 | Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'53.368 | 26.572 |
38 | 51 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'54.249 | 27.453 |
39 | 46 | Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'54.386 | 27.590 |
40 | 33 | Ben Keating Henrique Chaves Jr. Marco Sorensen |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'54.618 | 27.822 |
41 | 99 | Andrew Haryanto Alessio Picariello Martin Rump |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'54.906 | 28.110 |
42 | 98 | Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'54.937 | 28.141 |
43 | 77 | Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'55.164 | 28.368 |
44 | 80 | Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella Richard Heistand |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.269 | 28.473 |
45 | 21 | Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich Toni Vilander |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.286 | 28.490 |
46 | 88 | Fred Poordad Maxwell Root Jan Heylen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'55.315 | 28.519 |
47 | 61 | Louis Prette Conrad Grunewald Vincent Abril |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.397 | 28.601 |
48 | 71 | Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.531 | 28.735 |
49 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'55.575 | 28.779 |
50 | 55 | Duncan Cameron Matthew Griffin David Perel |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.582 | 28.786 |
51 | 85 | Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.629 | 28.833 |
52 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.658 | 28.862 |
53 | 777 | Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'55.659 | 28.863 |
54 | 60 | Claudio Schiavoni Alessandro Balzan Raffaele Giammaria |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.764 | 28.968 |
55 | 59 | Alexander West Côme Ledogar Marvin Klein |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.882 | 29.086 |
56 | 93 | Michael Fassbender Matt Campbell Zacharie Robichon |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'56.039 | 29.243 |
57 | 79 | Cooper MacNeil Julien Andlauer Thomas Merrill |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'56.201 | 29.405 |
58 | 57 | Takeshi Kimura Frederik Schandorff Mikkel Jensen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'56.257 | 29.461 |
59 | 56 | Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'56.792 | 29.996 |
60 | 75 | Pierre Ehret Christian Hook Nicolas Varrone |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'56.893 | 30.097 |
61 | 66 | Renger van der Zande Mark Kvamme Jason Hart |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'57.696 | 30.900 |
62 | 74 | Felipe Fraga Sam Bird Shane van Gisbergen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 4'27.690 | 1'00.894 |
View full results |
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