Antonio Fuoco set the fastest time in the third free practice session for this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the #50 Ferrari 499P driver setting a 3:27.283 to go quickest.
Kevin Estre was second fastest, with the Frenchman just over a tenth back from Fuoco, in the #6 Porsche 963.
BMW’s Dries Vanthoor, the fastest driver in the qualifying session earlier, was third on the timesheets, with the #15 BMW Team WRT M Hybrid V8 just 0.149 off Fuoco.
Fourth was the fastest of the Cadillacs, Sebastien Bourdais in the #3 Cadillac V-Series.R, a further few hundredths off Vanthoor.
Fifth was the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi, with a 3:27.803.
Alex Palou was sixth in the #2 Cadillac, with Pipo Derani in the #311 Action Express Cadillac seventh. Ryo Hirakawa was eighth in the sister #8 Toyota, while Mathieu Jaminet in the #4 Porsche and Nicolas Lapierre in the #36 Alpine A424 rounded out the top 10.
The session was marred by a single red flag, caused by James Cottingham crashing at Tertre Rouge in the #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S Evo, meaning the barriers at the corner leading onto the first part of the Mulsanne Straight needed repairing.
There was also a single full course yellow, to allow marshals to collect up debris on track.
Frederik Vesti set the fastest time in LMP2, with the #47 COOL Racing Oreca 07-Gibson driver setting a 3:37.342. Second quickest was another pro/am car, this time Louis Deletraz in the #14 AO by TF Oreca 07-Gibson. Third in the class, also a pro/am-entered car, was Nico Varrone’s #183 AF Corse Oreca 07-Gibson.
In the LMGT3 category, the priorities continued with teams gaining further data from long runs regarding fuel consumption and tyre degradation.
Early during the session, Inception Racing were confided to the pits after their #70 McLaren 720S LMGT3 EVO suffered a wheel sensor issue.
The wheel sensor was changed during the session which limited their running.
Another McLaren which encountered issues with the #59 United Autosports driver James Cottingham after he oversteered into the tyre barrier causing minor damage and so this caused a red flag.
Nevertheless, Gregoire Saucy’s 3:57.558 lap time set him at the top of the leaderboard with 13 laps completed for that #59 McLaren.
Unfortunately for the #70, their situation became more unfortunate when Frederik Schandorff stopped after the exit of the Mulsanne Corner with light smoke exiting the rear of the McLaren.
By the end, the #59 McLaren 720S LMGT3 EVO was fastest in the category ahead of the 3:57.564 set by Franck Perera in the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 EVO2.
Third position was taken by the #86 GR Racing Ferrari 296 LMGT3, competing in their first Le Mans 24 Hours with Maranello machinery, owing to factory driver Daniel Sera’s 3:58.561.
In fourth position, Marco Sorensen piloted the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin AMR Vantage to a 3:57.721 lap time.
The other United Autosports entrant – the #95 720S – rounded out the top-five after Marino Sato completed a fastest lap time of 3:58.615.
Most crucially, AF Corse completed the most laps on each of their Ferrari 296s at 35 each, therefore 70 in total as the #70 only drove four laps, and the #59 on 13 since their incident occurred.
