Le Mans 24 Hours: Calado puts Ferrari top in final practice session

Taking over the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar that Alessandro Pier Guidi drove to second in Hyperpole, Calado whisked to a time of 3m27.275s shortly before Jean-Eric Vergne’s #93 Peugeot 9X8 LMH brought out the red flags when it stopped between the two Mulsanne Chicanes.

The one-hour session was restarted with 20 minutes still on the clock, but there were few noteworthy improvements thereafter as Calado’s benchmark time held.

Calado was 1.003s faster than Esteban Gutierrez in the Le Mans-only #709 Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 that will start the World Endurance Championship blue ribband from 14th.

Gutierrez was in turn 0.162s faster than the Jota Porsche 963 LMDh campaigned by Will Stevens, which missed qualifying on Wednesday due to an electronic problem.

Kevin Estre improved to fourth after the red flag in the best of the factory Penske-run Porsches, his #6 machine usurping the Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Alexander Sims.

Jose Maria Lopez completed the top six in the leading Toyota GR010 HYBRID, 1.648s down on Calado, while a late effort from polesitter Antonio Fuoco in the second Ferrari secured him seventh in the #50 machine that didn’t set a time prior to the stoppage.

Vergne was shuffled back to eighth ahead of Michael Christensen’s #5 Penske Porsche as Richard Westbrook completed the top 10 in WEC full-season Ganassi Cadillac.

Tom Dillmann’s early effort aboard the Vanwall Vandervell 680 slotted him into 11th, ahead of Romain Dumas in the second Glickenhaus and Mathieu Jaminet’s #75 Porsche.

#75 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr, Mathieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy (Photo by: Marc Fleury)

The #7 Toyota likewise only appeared in the final third of the session and ended up 14th in Sebastien Buemi's hands ahead of the #93 Peugeot campaigned by Loic Duval.

After a burst high pressure fuel hose caused a fire in Hyperpole, the #3 Ganassi Cadillac didn’t turn a lap.

The LMP2 pace was set by Dries Vanthoor’s TF Sport-run Racing Team Turkey ORECA-Gibson 07 as the BMW factory driver stormed to the top of the timesheets.

Vanthoor logged a 3m36.229s aboard the pro-am entry to beat Job van Uitert by 0.421s in the ORECA fielded by Panis Racing.

After a late effort from Prema’s Mirko Bortolotti secured the fastest time in Wednesday evening’s FP2 session, the Lamborghini factory driver repeated the trick to move into third in the dying minutes of the session.

That demoted Tom Blomqvist to fourth in the #23 United Autosport entry, as Ben Barnicoat (AF Corse) and Pietro Fittipaldi’s pole-contending Jota machine rounded out the top six.

LMP2 polewinners IDEC Sport ended up 14th with Laurents Horr setting its best time.

#66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE EVO of Thomas Neubauer, Louis Prette, Giacomo Petrobelli (Photo by: Alexander Trienitz)

An early lap from Thomas Neubauer in the repaired JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE Evo secured the top spot in GTE Am.

The Frenchman, in the car crashed during opening practice by Louis Prette, beat Ferrari factory driver Daniel Serra’s Kessel example to the top spot by 0.104s with a 3m52.965s lap.

Alessio Picariello shuffled up the order into third in the closing stages aboard his Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19 ahead of fellow late improver Jan Heylen’s Proton example, as polewinner Corvette Racing’s works-entered C8.R ended up sixth with Nicolas Varrone at the wheel.

Le Mans 24 Hours - FP4 results

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	51	James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	16	3'27.275
2	709	Nathanael Berthon Esteban Gutierrez Franck Mailleux	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	17	3'28.278	1.003	1.003
3	38	Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens Ye Yifei	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	14	3'28.440	1.165	0.162
4	6	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	12	3'28.457	1.182	0.017
5	311	Jack Aitken Pipo Derani Alexander Sims	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	11	3'28.603	1.328	0.146
6	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	15	3'28.923	1.648	0.320
7	50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	9	3'28.935	1.660	0.012
8	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	7	3'29.053	1.778	0.118
9	5	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	15	3'29.371	2.096	0.318
10	2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	11	3'29.948	2.673	0.577
11	4	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Tristan Vautier	Vanwall Vandervell 680	HYPERCAR	16	3'30.115	2.840	0.167
12	708	Ryan Briscoe Romain Dumas Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	17	3'30.202	2.927	0.087
13	75	Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr Nick Tandy	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	8	3'30.534	3.259	0.332
14	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	11	3'30.616	3.341	0.082
15	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	14	3'30.881	3.606	0.265
16	923	Tom Gamble Dries Vanthoor Salih Yoluc	Oreca 07	LMP2	14	3'36.229	8.954	5.348
17	65	Tijmen van der Helm Manuel Maldonado Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	16	3'36.650	9.375	0.421
18	63	Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat Doriane Pin	Oreca 07	LMP2	16	3'36.904	9.629	0.254
19	23	Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson	Oreca 07	LMP2	16	3'36.964	9.689	0.060
20	80	Ben Barnicoat Norman Nato François Perrodo	Oreca 07	LMP2	15	3'37.126	9.851	0.162
21	28	Pietro Fittipaldi David Heinemeier Hansson Oliver Rasmussen	Oreca 07	LMP2	12	3'37.351	10.076	0.225
22	9	Juan Manuel Correa Filip Ugran Bent Viscaal	Oreca 07	LMP2	16	3'37.360	10.085	0.009
23	22	Filipe Albuquerque Philip Hanson Frederick Lubin	Oreca 07	LMP2	15	3'37.407	10.132	0.047
24	31	Robin Frijns Sean Gelael Ferdinand Habsburg	Oreca 07	LMP2	16	3'37.877	10.602	0.470
25	37	Alexandre Coigny Malthe Jakobsen Nicolas Lapierre	Oreca 07	LMP2	13	3'38.241	10.966	0.364
26	14	Mathias Beche Ben Hanley Rodrigo Sales	Oreca 07	LMP2	9	3'38.637	11.362	0.396
27	47	Reshad de Gerus Vlad Lomko Simon Pagenaud	Oreca 07	LMP2	16	3'38.714	11.439	0.077
28	43	Maxime Martin Tom Van Rompuy Ugo de Wilde	Oreca 07	LMP2	14	3'38.760	11.485	0.046
29	48	Paul-Loup Chatin Laurents Hörr Paul Lafargue	Oreca 07	LMP2	12	3'38.777	11.502	0.017
30	36	Julien Canal Charles Milesi Matthieu Vaxiviere	Oreca 07	LMP2	16	3'38.972	11.697	0.195
31	41	Rui Andrade Louis Deletraz Robert Kubica	Oreca 07	LMP2	16	3'39.064	11.789	0.092
32	39	Giedo van der Garde Roberto Lacorte Patrick Pilet	Oreca 07	LMP2	12	3'39.155	11.880	0.091
33	34	Albert Costa Fabio Scherer Jakub Smiechowski	Oreca 07	LMP2	15	3'39.211	11.936	0.056
34	30	Rene Binder Neel Jani Nicolas Pino	Oreca 07	LMP2	15	3'39.376	12.101	0.165
35	10	Gabriel Aubry Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser	Oreca 07	LMP2	16	3'40.079	12.804	0.703
36	45	James Allen Colin Braun George Kurtz	Oreca 07	LMP2	15	3'40.689	13.414	0.610
37	13	René Rast Ricky Taylor Thomas Steven	Oreca 07	LMP2	16	3'40.822	13.547	0.133
38	32	Anders Fjordbach Mark Kvamme Jan Magnussen	Oreca 07	LMP2	7	3'42.853	15.578	2.031
39	35	Olli Caldwell Andre Negrao Memo Rojas	Oreca 07	LMP2	14	3'43.623	16.348	0.770
40	24	Jenson Button Jimmie Johnson Mike Rockenfeller	Chevrolet Camaro ZL1	INNOVATIVE CAR	12	3'51.903	24.628	8.280
41	66	Thomas Neubauer Giacomo Petrobelli Louis Prette	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	13	3'52.965	25.690	1.062
42	57	Scott Huffaker Takeshi Kimura Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	15	3'53.069	25.794	0.104
43	60	Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello Claudio Schiavoni	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	12	3'53.316	26.041	0.247
44	16	Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen Zacharie Robichon	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	15	3'53.419	26.144	0.103
45	56	Matteo Cairoli PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	13	3'53.439	26.164	0.020
46	33	Nick Catsburg Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE AM	13	3'53.624	26.349	0.185
47	54	Francesco Castellacci Thomas Flohr Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	15	3'53.652	26.377	0.028
48	21	Simon Mann Ulysse De Pauw Julien Piguet	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	15	3'53.721	26.446	0.069
49	88	Jonas Ried Harry Tincknell Don Yount	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	8	3'53.745	26.470	0.024
50	98	Ian James Daniel Mancinelli Alex Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	14	3'53.861	26.586	0.116
51	86	Benjamin Barker Riccardo Pera Michael Wainwright	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	14	3'53.912	26.637	0.051
52	85	Sarah Bovy Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	14	3'54.423	27.148	0.511
53	83	Luis Perez Companc Alessio Rovera Lilou Wadoux	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	9	3'54.602	27.327	0.179
54	55	Gustav Birch Jens Reno Moller Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	13	3'57.318	30.043	2.716
55	74	Kei Cozzolino Yorikatsu Tsujiko Naoki Yokomizo	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	8	3'59.031	31.756	1.713
56	100	Andrew Haryanto Chandler Hull Jeff Segal	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	9	4'00.451	33.176	1.420
57	777	Tomonobu Fujii Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	14	4'01.206	33.931	0.755
58	72	Valentin Hasse-Clot Arnold Robin Maxime Robin	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	14	4'01.606	34.331	0.400
59	77	Julien Andlauer Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	13	4'07.309	40.034	5.703
60	3	Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon Renger van der Zande	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	0
61	25	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	0
62	911	Michael Fassbender Richard Lietz Martin Rump	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	0
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