WEC Portimao: Hartley secures Toyota's practice sweep in FP3

Brendon Hartley ensured a practice clean sweep for Toyota with a 1m31.795s lap of the Algarve International Circuit aboard the #8 machine, but was only 0.189s clear of James Calado in the #51 Ferrari 499P LMH.

The Briton’s 1m31.984s had briefly put his AF Corse-run entry 0.053s ahead of Hartley, before the three-time Le Mans winner responded to reinstate his advantage.

Kamui Kobayashi was 0.278s slower than Hartley in the sister #7 Toyota, but over half a second clear of the #94 Peugeot 9X8 LMH which managed a best time of 1m32.738s in Nico Muller’s hands.

The #94 machine was later embroiled in an incident at the Turn 5 hairpin when Gustavo Menezes dived inside Memo Rojas’s Signatech-run Alpine ORECA-Gibson 07 and tapped the Mexican into a spin.

Rojas suffered a left-rear puncture, which left him stranded on track and caused a red flag that was only lifted with 11 minutes remaining in the 60-minute session. Menezes was placed under investigation.

Shortly before the stoppage, Richard Westbrook had moved the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh up to fifth with a 1m32.818s that demoted Tom Dillmann’s Vanwall Vandervell 680 LMH.

The #51 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco languished 0.996s behind Calado in seventh, but slotted in ahead of the two Penske Porsche Motorsport 963 LMDhs.

#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

A late effort following the red flag by Laurens Vanthoor lifted his #6 entry ahead of team-mate Fred Makowiecki.

Mikkel Jensen completed the top 10 aboard the #93 Peugeot as Romain Dumas in the Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 rounded out the Hypercar field, 2.105s in arrears.

In LMP2 Gabriel Aubry once again headed the times in the Vector Sport ORECA, the FP2 pace-setter usurping the two WRT entries that had previously occupied the top two positions.

His 1m34.265s lap was just 0.002s faster than Louis Deletraz’s #41 WRT entry, with Robin Frijns aboard the #31 car 0.232s behind in third.

Ahead of its final scheduled LMP2 outing before moving into the Hypercar class from Spa, Ye Yifei put the #48 Jota ORECA fourth while #22 United Autosports driver Phil Hanson pipped Mirko Bortolotti’s #63 Prema entry to fifth by 0.003s.

Meanwhile Ferrari continued to lead the way in GTE Am as Davide Rigon put the #54 AF Corse 488 EVO GTE at the head of the pile on a 1m40.426s.

His closest challenger was stablemate Alessio Rovera in the #83 machine, which trailed by 0.364s.
Michelle Gatting was third fastest in the best of the Porsches, the Dane whisking her Iron Dames 911 RSR-19 around 0.473s slower.

Full WEC Portimao FP3 results:

Cla	#	Drivers		Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa		Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'31.795
2	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi		Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	1'31.984	0.189
3	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez		Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'32.073	0.278
4	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller		Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	1'32.738	0.943
5	2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook		Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	1'32.818	1.023
6	4	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Jacques Villeneuve		Vanwall Vandervell 680	HYPERCAR	1'32.922	1.127
7	50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen		Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	1'32.980	1.185
8	6	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor		Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	1'33.222	1.427
9	5	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki		Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	1'33.467	1.672
10	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne		Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	1'33.709	1.914
11	708	Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe Olivier Pla		Glickenhaus 007	HYPERCAR	1'33.900	2.105
12	10	Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'34.265	2.470
13	41	Rui Andrade Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'34.267	2.472
14	31	Sean Gelael Ferdinand Habsburg Robin Frijns		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'34.497	2.702
15	48	David Beckmann Ye Yifei Antonio Felix da Costa		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'34.509	2.714
16	22	Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Ben Hanley		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'34.535	2.740
17	63	Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'34.538	2.743
18	23	Josh Pierson Giedo van der Garde Oliver Jarvis		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'34.640	2.845
19	9	Filip Ugran Juan Manuel Correa Bent Viscaal		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'34.671	2.876
20	35	Andre Negrao Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'35.308	3.513
21	36	Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'35.445	3.650
22	28	David Heinemeier Hansson Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'35.449	3.654
23	34	Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'35.874	4.079
24	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'40.426	8.631
25	83	Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'40.790	8.995
26	85	Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'40.899	9.104
27	60	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'40.936	9.141
28	57	Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'40.948	9.153
29	86	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'41.094	9.299
30	25	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood		Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'41.449	9.654
31	56	Miguel Pedro Guilherme Moura Matteo Cairoli		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'41.502	9.707
32	88	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Harry Tincknell		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'41.665	9.870
33	21	Diego Alessi Simon Mann Ulysse De		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'41.711	9.916
34	33	Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg		Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE AM	1'41.751	9.956
35	777	Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii		Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'41.752	9.957
36	98	Paul Dalla Lana Axcil Jefferies Nicki Thiim		Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'41.789	9.994
37	77	Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'41.791	9.996
View full results