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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.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez

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

#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.

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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 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 3'26.796  
2 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Japan Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 3'27.115 0.319
3 708 France Olivier Pla
France Romain Dumas
Brazil Pipo Derani
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 3'27.466 0.670
4 709 Australia Ryan Briscoe
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
France Franck Mailleux
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 3'28.073 1.277
5 36 Brazil Andre Negrao
France Nicolas Lapierre
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 3'29.259 2.463
6 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United States Will Owen
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'30.964 4.168
7 23 United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United States Josh Pierson
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'31.025 4.229
8 31 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Netherlands Robin Frijns
Germany René Rast
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'31.030 4.234
9 37 China Ye Yifei
United States Ricky Taylor
Germany Niklas Krütten
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.057 5.261
10 38 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.151 5.355
11 41 Portugal Rui Andrade
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
France Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.169 5.373
12 83 France François Perrodo
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Italy Alessio Rovera
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.349 5.553
13 13 Philippe Cimadomo
Switzerland Mathias Beche
Netherlands Tijmen van der Helm
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.384 5.588
14 48 France Paul Lafargue
France Paul-Loup Chatin
France Patrick Pilet
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.055 6.259
15 5 United States Dane Cameron
France Emmanuel Collard
Brazil Felipe Nasr
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.247 6.451
16 28 Denmark Oliver Rasmussen
Edward Jones
South Africa Jonathan Aberdein
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.249 6.453
17 43 Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
Switzerland Fabio Scherer
Brazil Pietro Fittipaldi
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.253 6.457
18 9 Poland Robert Kubica
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
Italy Lorenzo Colombo
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.369 6.573
19 24 United States Rodrigo Sales
United Kingdom Matthew Bell
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.737 6.941
20 32 Switzerland Rolf Ineichen
Italy Mirko Bortolotti
Belgium Dries Vanthoor
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.794 6.998
21 1 France Lilou Wadoux
France Sébastien Ogier
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.395 7.599
22 35 France Jean Baptiste Lahaye
France Matthieu Lahaye
France François Heriau
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.486 7.690
23 10 Switzerland Nico Müller
Ireland Ryan Cullen
France Sébastien Bourdais
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.511 7.715
24 45 United States Thomas Steven
Australia James Allen
Austria Rene Binder
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.543 7.747
25 30 United Kingdom Richard Bradley
Mexico Guillermo Rojas
France Reshad de Gerus
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.788 7.992
26 39 France Eric Trouillet
Switzerland Sébastien Page
Switzerland David Droux
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.071 8.275
27 34 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
United Kingdom Alex Brundle
Mexico Esteban Gutierrez
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.285 9.489
28 65 France Julien Canal
France Nico Jamin
Netherlands Job Van Uitert
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.451 9.655
29 47 Germany Sophia Flörsch
United States John Falb
United Kingdom Jack Aitken
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.841 10.045
30 3 Germany Laurents Hörr
Belgium Jean Glorieux
France 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 Slovakia Miro Konopka
Netherlands Bent Viscaal
France Tristan Vautier
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'47.210 20.414
33 64 United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
United Kingdom Alexander Sims
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 3'52.307 25.511
34 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
France Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 3'52.787 25.991
35 63 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 3'52.824 26.028
36 92 Denmark Michael Christensen
France Kevin Estre
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 3'52.898 26.102
37 52 Spain Miguel Molina
Italy Antonio Fuoco
Italy Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'53.368 26.572
38 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Brazil Daniel Serra
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'54.249 27.453
39 46 Italy Matteo Cairoli
Denmark Mikkel Pedersen
Switzerland Nicolas Leutwiler
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'54.386 27.590
40 33 United States Ben Keating
Portugal Henrique Chaves Jr.
Denmark Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'54.618 27.822
41 99 Indonesia Andrew Haryanto
Belgium Alessio Picariello
Estonia Martin Rump
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'54.906 28.110
42 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
United Kingdom David Pittard
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'54.937 28.141
43 77 Germany Christian Ried
United Kingdom Sebastian Priaulx
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'55.164 28.368
44 80 Italy Matteo Cressoni
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
United States Richard Heistand
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.269 28.473
45 21 France Simon Mann
Switzerland Christoph Ulrich
Finland Toni Vilander
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.286 28.490
46 88 United States Fred Poordad
United States Maxwell Root
Belgium Jan Heylen
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'55.315 28.519
47 61 Monaco Louis Prette
Conrad Grunewald
Monaco Vincent Abril
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.397 28.601
48 71 France Franck Dezoteux
France Pierre Ragues
France Gabriel Aubry
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.531 28.735
49 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
Italy Riccardo Pera
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'55.575 28.779
50 55 United Kingdom Duncan Cameron
Ireland Matthew Griffin
South Africa David Perel
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.582 28.786
51 85 Switzerland Rahel Frey
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Belgium Sarah Bovy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.629 28.833
52 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
New Zealand Nick Cassidy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.658 28.862
53 777 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
United Kingdom Charlie Fagg
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'55.659 28.863
54 60 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Alessandro Balzan
Italy Raffaele Giammaria
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.764 28.968
55 59 Sweden Alexander West
France Côme Ledogar
France Marvin Klein
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.882 29.086
56 93 Germany Michael Fassbender
Australia Matt Campbell
Canada Zacharie Robichon
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'56.039 29.243
57 79 United States Cooper MacNeil
France Julien Andlauer
United States Thomas Merrill
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'56.201 29.405
58 57 Japan Takeshi Kimura
Switzerland Frederik Schandorff
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'56.257 29.461
59 56 United States Brendan Iribe
United Kingdom Ollie Millroy
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'56.792 29.996
60 75 Germany Pierre Ehret
Germany Christian Hook
Nicolas Varrone
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'56.893 30.097
61 66 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
United States Mark Kvamme
United States Jason Hart
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'57.696 30.900
62 74 Brazil Felipe Fraga
United Kingdom Sam Bird
New Zealand Shane van Gisbergen
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 4'27.690 1'00.894

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