Le Mans 24h: FP4 headed by #8 Toyota from Alpine
Alpine split the Toyotas in the final practice ahead of this weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours, the blue riband round of the World Endurance Championship.
Nicolas Lapierre got within three tenths of Kazuki Nakajima's time-topping Toyota during the fourth period of free practice that followed the Hyperpole qualifying session.
Nakajima set the pace from the beginning of Thursday evening's night session in the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID, ending up on a 3m27.994s.
Lapierre posted an improvement with 40 minutes to go, getting down to a 3m28.280s aboard the Alpine-Gibson A480.
Pole winner Kamui Kobayashi improved to a 3m29.567s late in the session but remained third in the #7 Toyota.
Ryan Briscoe ended up fastest of the two Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 LMHs with a 3m30.309s.
Franco Colapinto took LMP2 honours in the G-Drive Racing's lead entry.
The Argentinian took the top spot with 3m31.414s set early in the session aboard his Aurus-badged ORECA-07 Gibson.
That put him nearly half a second up on Job van Uitert's 3m31.862sin the TDS-run Racing Team Nederland ORECA.
Filipe Albuquerque claimed third spot for United Autosports ahead of Gabriel Aubry's Panis Racing-run PR1 Mathiasen ORECA.
#26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 - Gibson LMP2, Roman Rusinov, Franco Colapinto, Nyck De Vries
Photo by: Paul Foster
Laurens Vanthoor, older brother of class pole winner Dries, led the way in GTE Pro for the privateer WeatherTech Racing Porsche squad.
The Belgian's 3m48.246s aboard the Proton-run WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR put him a second clear of Gianmaria Bruni in the only factory Porsche to take part in the session.
Bruni's 3m49.334s had leapfrogged him to the top of the times ahead of the two Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs halfway through the session.
Antonio Garcia ended up third with a 3m49.406s ahead of Alexander Sims, who was just behind on 3m49.684s.
The pole-winning HubAuto Porsche claimed fifth in Maxime Martin's hands ahead of the two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos.
GTE Am honours went to the AF Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen, who was just over a tenth up on Optimum-run Inception Racing Ferrari in Ben Barnicoat's hands.
The session was halted 15 minutes before its two-hour duration was complete when Ollie Millroy put the Inception Ferrari in the barriers at the Ford Chicane.
Fifty-eight of the 62 cars entered for the race took part in FP4.
Those missing included the #92 factory Porsche crashed by Kevin Estre during Hyperpole qualifying.
Track action resumes at Le Mans at 1130 local time with the 15-minute warm-up session ahead of the 1600 race start of the 89th edition of the 24 Hours.
Le Mans 24 Hours - FP4 results
Related video
Vanthoor hails "lap of my life" after shock Le Mans GTE Pro pole
IDEC Sport withdraws #17 LMP2 entry after Le Mans practice shunt
The remarkable fixes Toyota used to avert another Le Mans disaster
The 1-2 finish achieved by Toyota at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours was a result that will have surprised few, given its status as pre-event favourite. But the result was anything but straightforward, as worsening fuel pressure concerns required the team's drivers and engineers to pursue "creative fixes" on the fly. Here is the full story of how it reached the end without a lengthy pit visit
Inside the Le Mans finish too barmy for Hollywood
Team WRT has been at the forefront of GT racing for years and made a successful move to prototypes for 2021, capped by an LMP2 win on its Le Mans debut. It could've been even better had the race been one lap shorter, when its cars ran 1-2, but the stranger-than-fiction reality has spurred the team to reach greater heights
The standout memories of Le Mans 2021
OPINION: With four of the five Hypercar entries unproven in a 24-hour race, it would not have been unexpected for at least one of them to suffer serious reliability trouble. That they all managed to make it through the race relatively unscathed, says GARY WATKINS, was something of a surprise.
Why Toyota's Le Mans victory was not as simple as it looked
Toyota scored its fourth Le Mans 24 Hours victory and a 1-2, with the #7 car of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez beating the #8. But although it looked straightforward from the outside, Toyota faced serious problem that had to be solved with some quick-thinking and ingenuity
10 things we've learned from the 2021 Le Mans 24 Hours so far
The new dawn for the World Endurance Championship has arrived at Le Mans, as Hypercars prepare to duel for victory in the world's oldest endurance race. Autosport picks out the 10 things we have learned in the build up to the race.
Le Mans 2021: The team by team guide
After a two-month delay due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 Le Mans 24 Hours is set to get underway with the start of the Hypercar era at the Circuit de la Sarthe
The ex-F1 drivers making a name for themselves in Le Mans' underrated class
Kevin Magnussen will make his Le Mans 24 Hours debut this weekend alongside father Jan in LMP2. But the Danes won't be the only ex-F1 drivers to appear in the hotly contested category this year.
Can Toyota's #7 crew break its Le Mans curse?
One Toyota, normally with the number 7 on the side, always seems to attract the bad luck in the Le Mans 24 Hours. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez are hoping for a change in fortune this time around, but face significantly more unknowns than in recent years