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Rebellion and Deletraz top Le Mans 24 Hours FP3 night session

Rebellion driver Louis Deletraz led the way in the third free practice session for the Le Mans 24 Hours, which featured four hours of night time running

Thursday night's third practice session was the only opportunity for drivers and teams to get some necessary night running in ahead of Sunday's race, with most of the session's fastest times set in the first half after which many teams switched to tyre work.

Deletraz hit the top of the timesheets in the first hour, setting a 3m19.158s lap in the #3 Rebellion R-13.

Toyota's Kamui Kobayashi improved on his early lap times in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid to set a 3m19.638s in the second hour, closely followed by the second Rebellion of Gustavo Menezes.

Sebastien Buemi was fourth in the #8 Toyota, while LMP1's fifth and final entrant ByKolles lost a lot of track time after Bruno Spengler hit the barrier at Tertre Rouge 90 minutes into the session, bringing out a red flag.

In LMP2 Tristan Gommendy set the fastest time early on in the #30 Duqueine ORECA 07, his 3m28.013s remaining untouched for the entirety of the session.

United Autosport's Job van Uitert took second with just over an hour to go in the #32 ORECA, nine tenths shy of Gommendy's benchmark. With 30 minutes remaining Jean-Eric Vergne lifted his #26 G-Drive ORECA to third, another tenth in arrears.

Both IDEC Sport LMP2 cars remained in the pits after they suffered heavy accidents earlier on Thursday, the team's #28 ORECA requiring a new tub.

Porsche's Kevin Estre withstood late improvements from Maxime Martin's #97 Aston Martin Vantage to top the GTE Pro standings.

The Frenchman's time of 3m52.177s aboard the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19, set in the first hour, was three tenths faster than Martin could muster, the Belgian setting his series of fast times in the final hour.

Marco Sorensen took third in the sister #95 Aston, followed by James Calado (#51 AF Corse) in the first of the Ferraris.

Kei Cozzolino was quickest in GTE Am with the Japanese MR Racing Ferrari, his 3m54.490s effort bettering Paolo Ruberti's time in the final hour.

In the #98 Aston, Augusto Farfus also dipped below the benchmark Ruberti set in the #60 Iron Linx Ferrari. The Brazilian got within one tenth of Cozzolino but settled for second.

The session was curtailed 15 minutes early after a huge accident for Bonamy Grimes in the Red River Ferrari. The Briton lost his car under braking for the first Mulsanne chicane and clattered into the barriers, but climbed out unhurt.

Action continues on Friday with a short fourth practice session at 100hrs local time, followed by a Hyperpole shootout in which the six fastest cars of each category will fight for pole.

Le Mans 24 Hours - FP3 Results

Pos Class Driver Team Car Gap
1 LMP1 R.Dumas, N.Berthon, L.Deletraz Rebellion Racing Rebellion/Gibson 3m19.158s
2 LMP1 M.Conway, K.Kobayashi, J.M.Lopez Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 0.480s
3 LMP1 B.Senna, N.Nato, G.Menezes Rebellion Racing Rebellion/Gibson 0.617s
4 LMP1 S.Buemi, K.Nakajima, B.Hartley Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 1.515s
5 LMP2 J.Hirschi, K.Tereschenko, T.Gommendy Duqueine Team ORECA/Gibson 8.855s
6 LMP2 W.Owen, A.Brundle, J.van Uitert United Autosports ORECA/Gibson 9.766s
7 LMP2 R.Rusinov, J-E.Vergne, M.Jensen G-Drive Racing Aurus/Gibson 9.924s
8 LMP2 P.Hanson, F.Albuquerque, P.Di Resta United Autosports ORECA/Gibson 10.183s
9 LMP2 F.van Eerd, G.van der Garde, N.de Vries Racing Team Nederland ORECA/Gibson 10.206s
10 LMP2 N.Jamin, J.Canal, M.Vaxiviere Panis Racing ORECA/Gibson 11.179s
11 LMP2 H-Pin Tung, G.Aubry, W.Stevens Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 11.244s
12 LMP2 N.Lapierre, A.Borga, A.Coigny COOL Racing ORECA/Gibson 11.320s
13 LMP2 A.Negrao, P.Ragues, T.Laurent Signatech Alpine Elf Alpine/Gibson 11.494s
14 LMP2 R.Cullen, O.Jarvis, N.Tandy G-Drive Racing by Algarve Aurus/Gibson 11.494s
15 LMP2 A.Davidson, A.F.da Costa, R.Gonzalez JOTA ORECA/Gibson 11.679s
16 LMP2 H.Hedman, B.Hanley, R.van der Zande Dragonspeed USA ORECA/Gibson 11.741s
17 LMP2 N.Yamanaka, N.Foster, R.Merhi Eurasia Motorsport Ligier/Gibson 11.909s
18 LMP1 T.Dillmann, B.Spengler, O.Webb ByKOLLES Racing Team ENSO CLM/Gibson 12.438s
19 LMP2 K.Yamashita, M.Patterson, A.Fjordbach High Class Racing ORECA/Gibson 12.712s
20 LMP2 J.P.Montoya, T.Buret, M.Rojas Dragonspeed USA ORECA/Gibson 12.721s
21 LMP2 J.Falb, S.Trummer, M.McMurry Algarve Pro Racing ORECA/Gibson 12.876s
22 LMP2 J.Allen, V.Capillaire, C.Milesi Graff-SO24 ORECA/Gibson 13.318s
23 LMP2 G.Grist, A.Kapadia, T.Wells Nielsen Racing ORECA/Gibson 13.601s
24 LMP2 J.Smiechowski, R.Binder, M.Isaakyan Inter Europol Competition Ligier/Gibson 14.088s
25 LMP2 T.Calderon, S.Florsch, B.Visser Richard Mille Racing Team ORECA/Gibson 15.284s
26 LMP2 R.Lacorte, A.Belicchi, G.Sernagiotto Cetilar Racing Dallara/Gibson 15.496s
27 LMP2 A.Tambay, E.Maris, C.d'Ansembourg EuroInternational Ligier/Gibson 15.576s
28 GTE Pro M.Christensen, K.Estre, L.Vanthoor Porsche GT Team Porsche 33.019s
29 GTE Pro M.Martin, A.Lynn, H.Tincknell Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 33.284s
30 GTE Pro N.Thiim, M.Sorensen, R.Westbrook Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 33.474s
31 GTE Pro A.P.Guidi, J.Calado, D.Serra AF Corse Ferrari 33.642s
32 GTE Pro G.Bruni, R.Lietz, F.Makowiecki Porsche GT Team Porsche 33.935s
33 GTE Pro O.Pla, S.Bourdais, J.Gounon Risi Competizione Ferrari 34.209s
34 GTE Pro D.Rigon, M.Molina, S.Bird AF Corse Ferrari 34.602s
35 GTE Pro C.MacNeil, T.Vilander, J.Segal WeatherTech Racing Ferrari 34.685s
36 GTE Am T.Kimura, V.Abril, K.Cozzolino MR Racing Ferrari 35.332s
37 GTE Am P.D.Lana, R.Gunn, A.Farfus Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 35.432s
38 GTE Am C.Schiavoni, S.Pianezzola, P.Ruberti Iron Lynx Ferrari 35.696s
39 GTE Am T.Preining, D.Bastien, A.De Leener Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 35.710s
40 GTE Am R.Mastronardi, M.Cressoni, A.Piccini Iron Lynx Ferrari 35.780s
41 GTE Am C.Ried, R.Pera, M.Campbell Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 35.934s
42 GTE Am F.Piovanetti, O.Negri, C.Ledogar Luzich Racing Ferrari 36.273s
43 GTE Am F.Perrodo, E.Collard, N.Nielsen AF Corse Ferrari 36.287s
44 GTE Am T.Flohr, F.Castellacci, G.Fisichella AF Corse Ferrari 36.778s
45 GTE Am S.Yoluc, C.Eastwood, J.Adam TF Sport Aston Martin 36.809s
46 GTE Am M.Wainwright, B.Barker, A.Watson Gulf Racing Porsche 37.007s
47 GTE Am I.Vutthikorn, L.Legeret, J.Andlauer Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 37.010s
48 GTE Am B.Keating, F.Fraga, J.Bleekemolen Team Project 1 Porsche 37.014s
49 GTE Am E.Perfetti, L.ten Voorde, M.Cairoli Team Project 1 Porsche 37.250s
50 GTE Am H.Felbermayr Jr., M.Beretta, M.van Splunteren Proton Competition Porsche 37.707s
51 GTE Am H.C.Chen, T.Blomqvist, M.Gomes Hub Auto Racing Ferrari 38.250s
52 GTE Am M.Gostner, R.Frey, M.Gatting Iron Lynx Ferrari 39.907s
53 GTE Am D.Cameron, A.Scott, M.Griffin Spirit of Race Ferrari 40.342s
54 GTE Am P.Haezebrouck, J.Piguet, A.Laskaratos Team Project 1 Porsche 41.290s
55 GTE Am R.Heistand, M.Root, J.Magnussen JMW Motorsport Ferrari 41.681s
56 GTE Am B.Grimes, J.Mowlem, C.Hollings Red River Sport Ferrari 44.081s
57 GTE Am C.Ulrich, S.Gorig, A.West AF Corse Ferrari 46.894s
58 LMP2 D.Merriman, K.Tilley, J.Kennard Idec Sport Racing ORECA/Gibson -
59 LMP2 P.Lafargue, P-L.Chatin, R.Bradley Idec Sport Racing ORECA/Gibson -

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