Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Autosport
Autosport
Stephen Lickorish

Le Mans 24 Hours: Ferrari locks out 1-2 ahead of Toyota in third practice

Toyota had seemed set to return to the top of the Le Mans timesheets for the first time since opening practice on Wednesday, with Kamui Kobayashi heading the majority of the session.

However, a late 3m26.579s from Antonio Fuoco in the #50 499P LMH smashed Kobayashi's best by almost a second.

And, with eight minutes to go, Alessandro Pier Guidi set a 3m27.013s lap to go second, despite the #51 Ferrari having spent the first half of the three-hour session in the pits.

The Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs were denied the chance to respond as a late full-course yellow, when Manuel Maldonado went off, hampered any further late improvements. Instead, Kobayashi had to settle for third in the #7 Toyota.

Mathieu Jaminet in the #75 Porsche 963 LMDh was the initial pacesetter on a 3m28.454s but was soon usurped by the two Toyotas.

Kobayashi claimed top spot with a 3m27.822s in the #7 car, before Sebastien Buemi went second in the sister #8 machine on 3m27.879s.

However, Kobayashi then improved to a 3m27.580s that looked set to be the benchmark for the remainder of third practice until the late Ferrari efforts.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Brendon Hartley improved the #8's best to a 3m27.866s to finish up almost three tenths adrift.

Next up was the #38 Jota-run Porsche with Antonio Felix da Costa setting a 3m27.927s very early on, which remained good enough for fifth.

Another of the later improvers was the fastest of the factory Porsches, Felipe Nasr setting a 3m28.135s to end up sixth in the #75.

Seventh was the Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh, with Jack Aitken rising up the leaderboard in the final half hour.

Behind the other two factory Porsches was the best of the Peugeot 9X8 LMHs, Mikkel Jensen's 3m29.096s 2.5s adrift of the Ferraris to complete the top 10.

Further back were the two Cadillac Racing entries and the second Peugeot, while the best Glickenhaus was 13th.

Regular LMP2 pacesetter Jota was back to the top of the LMP2 timesheets, Pietro Fittipaldi's second lap of the session, a 3m34.071s, good enough to lead throughout in the #28 ORECA-Gibson 07.

#28 Jota Oreca 07 - Gibson of David Heinemeier Hansson, Oliver Rasmussen, Pietro Fittipaldi (Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt)

Mathias Beche also held second since the early laps for Nielsen, although his best was some three seconds slower than what Fittipaldi managed, while the #34 Inter Europol ORECA wound up third.

Several of the other LMP2 entries were in strife with Ferdinand Habsburg spinning into the barriers exiting Indianapolis in the opening moments of the session in the #31 WRT machine.

Maldonado also went into the gravel in the #65 Panis Racing entry at the same corner - the first of two offs for the Venezuelan - while Rodrigo Sales had a spin in the #14 Nielsen car at Mulsanne after taking over from Beche.

Ben Barker and Matteo Cressoni spent the opening chunk of the session trading the GTE Am class lead.

After this flurry of improvements, Barker spent a while on top in the #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR from Cressoni's #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

But, at the midpoint of the practice running, Francesco Castellacci in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari went quicker with a 3m53.681s to end up a tenth quicker than Barker's best with Iron Lynx relegated to third.

Le Mans 24 Hours third practice results

Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap
1 50 Italy Antonio Fuoco
Spain Miguel Molina
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 3'26.579  
2 51 United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 3'27.013 0.434
3 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 3'27.580 1.001
4 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Japan Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 3'27.866 1.287
5 38 Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Will Stevens
China Ye Yifei
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 3'27.927 1.348
6 75 France Mathieu Jaminet
Brazil Felipe Nasr
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 3'28.135 1.556
7 311 United Kingdom Jack Aitken
Brazil Pipo Derani
United Kingdom Alexander Sims
Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 3'28.277 1.698
8 5 United States Dane Cameron
Denmark Michael Christensen
France Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 3'28.548 1.969
9 6 France Kevin Estre
Germany Andre Lotterer
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 3'28.826 2.247
10 93 United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
France Jean-Eric Vergne
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 3'29.207 2.628
11 3 France Sébastien Bourdais
New Zealand Scott Dixon
Netherlands Renger van der Zande
Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 3'29.445 2.866
12 94 France Loic Duval
United States Gustavo Menezes
Switzerland Nico Müller
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 3'30.167 3.588
13 708 Australia Ryan Briscoe
France Romain Dumas
France Olivier Pla
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 3'30.433 3.854
14 2 New Zealand Earl Bamber
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 3'30.989 4.410
15 4 France Tom Dillmann
Argentina Esteban Guerrieri
France Tristan Vautier
Vanwall Vandervell 680 HYPERCAR 3'31.343 4.764
16 709 France Nathanael Berthon
Mexico Esteban Gutierrez
France Franck Mailleux
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 3'31.458 4.879
17 28 Brazil Pietro Fittipaldi
Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
Denmark Oliver Rasmussen
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.071 7.492
18 14 Switzerland Mathias Beche
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
United States Rodrigo Sales
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.218 10.639
19 34 Spain Albert Costa
Switzerland Fabio Scherer
Poland Jakub Smiechowski
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.315 10.736
20 22 Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United Kingdom Philip Hanson
United Kingdom Frederick Lubin
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.369 10.790
21 45 Australia James Allen
United States Colin Braun
United States George Kurtz
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.376 10.797
22 23 United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United States Josh Pierson
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.385 10.806
23 30 Austria Rene Binder
Switzerland Neel Jani
Chile Nicolas Pino
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.553 10.974
24 39 Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Italy Roberto Lacorte
France Patrick Pilet
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.554 10.975
25 48 France Paul-Loup Chatin
Germany Laurents Hörr
France Paul Lafargue
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.648 11.069
26 63 Italy Mirko Bortolotti
Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat
France Doriane Pin
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.697 11.118
27 37 Switzerland Alexandre Coigny
Denmark Malthe Jakobsen
France Nicolas Lapierre
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.773 11.194
28 47 France Reshad de Gerus
Russian Federation Vlad Lomko
France Simon Pagenaud
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.827 11.248
29 80 United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
France Norman Nato
France François Perrodo
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.066 11.487
30 9 United States Juan Manuel Correa
Romania Filip Ugran
Netherlands Bent Viscaal
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.146 11.567
31 36 France Julien Canal
France Charles Milesi
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.170 11.591
32 41 Portugal Rui Andrade
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
Poland Robert Kubica
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.201 11.622
33 13 Germany René Rast
United States Ricky Taylor
United States Thomas Steven
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.426 11.847
34 923 United Kingdom Tom Gamble
Belgium Dries Vanthoor
Turkey Salih Yoluc
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.574 11.995
35 65 Netherlands Tijmen van der Helm
Venezuela Manuel Maldonado
Netherlands Job Van Uitert
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.688 12.109
36 43 Belgium Maxime Martin
Belgium Tom Van Rompuy
Belgium Ugo de Wilde
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.953 12.374
37 32 Denmark Anders Fjordbach
United States Mark Kvamme
Denmark Jan Magnussen
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'39.164 12.585
38 31 Netherlands Robin Frijns
Indonesia Sean Gelael
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'39.609 13.030
39 10 France Gabriel Aubry
Ireland Ryan Cullen
Liechtenstein Matthias Kaiser
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'39.675 13.096
40 35 United Kingdom Olli Caldwell
Brazil Andre Negrao
Mexico Memo Rojas
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'39.921 13.342
41 24 United Kingdom Jenson Button
United States Jimmie Johnson
Germany Mike Rockenfeller
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 INNOVATIVE CAR 3'52.752 26.173
42 54 Italy Francesco Castellacci
Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'53.681 27.102
43 86 United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Italy Riccardo Pera
United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'53.839 27.260
44 60 Italy Matteo Cressoni
Belgium Alessio Picariello
Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'53.868 27.289
45 77 France Julien Andlauer
Germany Christian Ried
Mikkel Pedersen
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'54.238 27.659
46 83 Argentina Luis Perez Companc
Italy Alessio Rovera
France Lilou Wadoux
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'54.429 27.850
47 21 France Simon Mann
Belgium Ulysse De Pauw
France Julien Piguet
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'54.638 28.059
48 16 United States Ryan Hardwick
Belgium Jan Heylen
Canada Zacharie Robichon
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'54.755 28.176
49 56 Italy Matteo Cairoli
United States PJ Hyett
United States Gunnar Jeannette
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'54.775 28.196
50 33 Netherlands Nick Catsburg
United States Ben Keating
Argentina Nicolás Varrone
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE AM 3'54.809 28.230
51 66 France Thomas Neubauer
Italy Giacomo Petrobelli
Louis Prette
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'54.951 28.372
52 911 Germany Michael Fassbender
Austria Richard Lietz
Estonia Martin Rump
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'55.266 28.687
53 57 United States Scott Huffaker
Japan Takeshi Kimura
Brazil Daniel Serra
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.269 28.690
54 25 United Kingdom Ahmad Al Harthy
United States Michael Dinan
Ireland Charles Eastwood
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'55.400 28.821
55 85 Belgium Sarah Bovy
Switzerland Rahel Frey
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'55.587 29.008
56 74 Japan Kei Cozzolino
Japan Yorikatsu Tsujiko
Japan Naoki Yokomizo
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.890 29.311
57 72 France Valentin Hasse-Clot
Arnold Robin
Maxime Robin
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'56.173 29.594
58 100 Indonesia Andrew Haryanto
United States Chandler Hull
United States Jeff Segal
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'56.226 29.647
59 88 Germany Jonas Ried
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
United States Don Yount
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'57.338 30.759
60 55 Denmark Gustav Birch
Denmark Jens Reno Moller
Denmark Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'57.625 31.046
61 98 United Kingdom Ian James
Italy Daniel Mancinelli
Spain Alex Riberas
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 4'02.893 36.314
62 777 Japan Tomonobu Fujii
Japan Satoshi Hoshino
United Kingdom Casper Stevenson
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM    
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.