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WEC Sao Paulo: Jota leads final practice top three sweep for Porsche

Jota's Callum Ilott headed a tight final practice session for the World Endurance Championship's Interlagos round with the top three split by less than a tenth.

Ilott headed a Porsche 963 LMDh clean sweep of the top three, his customer Jota car beating the two factory Porsche Penske Motorsport entries with a benchmark effort of 1m24.297s set shortly before the track was declared wet.

Conditions never deteriorated to the point that wet tyres were required, but Ilott's time held to the end of the hour-long session.

Matt Campbell was just 0.012s slower than the winner of the WEC's Spa 6 Hours earlier this year, while Kevin Estre was 0.093s behind in third.

Charles Milesi was fourth in the leading Alpine A424, clocking in 0.347s off the pace, fractionally ahead of Dries Vanthoor's WRT-run BMW M Hybrid V8.

Daniil Kvyat's Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 and Jenson Button in the second Jota Porsche completed an LMDh lockout of the top seven, with Le Mans winner Antonio Fuoco's factory Ferrari 499P the top Le Mans Hypercar in eighth.

Robert Shwartzman in the customer AF Corse-run Ferrari was ninth, ahead of the #93 Peugeot 9X8 LMH in which Jean-Eric Vergne visited the Turn 1 run-off.

Mick Schumacher set the 11th fastest time in the second Alpine, which caused the session's most noteworthy incident when Matthieu Vaxiviere spun Carl Wattana Bennett's Isotta Fraschini Tipo6 at Turn 8.

#92 Manthey Purerxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm, Klaus Bachler (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

After heading the timesheets in Friday's second practice, the two Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs were only 13th and 14th, with Nyck de Vries and Sebastien Buemi respectively setting the times aboard the #7 and #8 machines.

The LMGT3 times continued to tumble after the rain began to fall, with joint championship leader Alexander Malykhin ultimately setting the pace in the #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The bronze-rated driver posted two laps quick enough for the top spot, with his best effort of 1m35.488s putting him 0.062s quicker than Nico Pino's United Autosports McLaren.

Sarah Bovy made it three different manufacturers in the top three positions with third in her Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan Evo2, 0.151s behind Malykhin, while Gregoire Saucy completed a strong session for McLaren with fourth in the second United entry.

Qualifying for Sunday's Sao Paulo 6 Hours begins at 14:30 local time.

WEC Sao Paulo - FP3 results

   
1
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4
   
   
1
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2
   
Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
12 United Kingdom W. Stevens United Kingdom C. Ilott France N. Nato Porsche 963 37

1'24.297

  184.020
2
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
5 Australia M. Campbell Denmark M. Christensen France F. Makowiecki Porsche 963 36

+0.012

1'24.309

0.012 183.994
3
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
6 France K. Estre Germany A. Lotterer Belgium L. Vanthoor Porsche 963 37

+0.093

1'24.390

0.081 183.817
4
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
35 France P. Chatin Austria F. Habsburg France C. Milesi Alpine A424 38

+0.347

1'24.644

0.254 183.266
5
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
15 Belgium D. Vanthoor Italy R. Marciello Germany M. Wittmann BMW M Hybrid V8 37

+0.385

1'24.682

0.038 183.184
6
Lamborghini Iron Lynx HYPERCAR
63 Italy M. Bortolotti Switzerland E. Mortara Russian Federation D. Kvyat Lamborghini SC63 37

+0.426

1'24.723

0.041 183.095
7
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
38 United Kingdom J. Button United Kingdom P. Hanson Denmark O. Rasmussen Porsche 963 34

+0.467

1'24.764

0.041 183.006
8
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
50 Italy A. Fuoco Spain M. Molina Denmark N. Nielsen Ferrari 499P 36

+0.605

1'24.902

0.138 182.709
9
AF Corse HYPERCAR
83 Poland R. Kubica Israel R. Shwartzman China Y. Yifei Ferrari 499P 35

+0.612

1'24.909

0.007 182.694
10
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
93 Denmark M. Jensen Switzerland N. Müller France J. Vergne Peugeot 9X8 2024 36

+0.813

1'25.110

0.201 182.262
11
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
36 France N. Lapierre Germany M. Schumacher France M. Vaxiviere Alpine A424 38

+0.817

1'25.114

0.004 182.254
12
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
94 United Kingdom P. di Resta France L. Duval Belgium S. Vandoorne Peugeot 9X8 2024 30

+1.176

1'25.473

0.359 181.488
13
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
7 United Kingdom M. Conway Japan K. Kobayashi Netherlands N. de Vries Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 38

+1.189

1'25.486

0.013 181.461
14
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
8 Switzerland S. Buemi New Zealand B. Hartley Japan R. Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 39

+1.224

1'25.521

0.035 181.387
15
CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR
2 New Zealand E. Bamber United Kingdom A. Lynn Cadillac V-Series.R 34

+1.381

1'25.678

0.157 181.054
16
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
51 Italy A. Pier Guidi United Kingdom J. Calado Italy A. Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P 35

+1.761

1'26.058

0.380 180.255
17
Proton Competition HYPERCAR
99 Switzerland N. Jani France J. Andlauer Porsche 963 31

+2.598

1'26.895

0.837 178.518
18
Isotta Fraschini HYPERCAR
11 Canada A. Serravalle Hungary C. Bennett France J. Vernay Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 Competizione LMH 33

+2.668

1'26.965

0.070 178.375
19
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
20 South Africa S. Van Der Linde Netherlands R. Frijns Germany R. Rast BMW M Hybrid V8 36

+3.015

1'27.312

0.347 177.666
20
Manthey PureRxcing LMGT3
92
A. Malykhin
J. Sturm
Austria K. Bachler
Porsche 911 GT3 R 31

+11.191

1'35.488

8.176 162.453
21
United Autosports LMGT3
95 United Kingdom J. Caygill Chile N. Pino Japan M. Sato McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 33

+11.253

1'35.550

0.062 162.348
22
IRON DAMES LMGT3
85 Belgium S. Bovy Switzerland R. Frey Denmark M. Gatting Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 32

+11.342

1'35.639

0.089 162.197
23
United Autosports LMGT3
59 J. Cottingham N. Costa Switzerland G. Saucy McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 34

+11.374

1'35.671

0.032 162.143
24
TF Sport LMGT3
82 Japan H. Koizumi
S. Baud
Spain D. Juncadella
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 33

+11.532

1'35.829

0.158 161.875
25
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
54 Switzerland T. Flohr Italy F. Castellacci Italy D. Rigon Ferrari 296 GT3 32

+11.584

1'35.881

0.052 161.788
26
Heart of Racing Team LMGT3
27 United Kingdom I. James Italy D. Mancinelli Spain A. Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 27

+11.805

1'36.102

0.221 161.415
27
Manthey EMA LMGT3
91
Y. Shahin
M. Schuring
Austria R. Lietz
Porsche 911 GT3 R 32

+11.833

1'36.130

0.028 161.368
28
D'Station Racing LMGT3
777 France C. Mateu
E. Bastard
Denmark M. Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 29

+11.844

1'36.141

0.011 161.350
29
Proton Competition LMGT3
88 Italy G. Roda
M. Pedersen
Norway D. Olsen
Ford Mustang GT3 26

+11.849

1'36.146

0.005 161.342
30
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
55 France F. Heriau France S. Mann Italy A. Rovera Ferrari 296 GT3 32

+11.896

1'36.193

0.047 161.263
31
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
87 Japan T. Kimura
E. Masson
Argentina J. Lopez
Lexus RC F GT3 30

+11.927

1'36.224

0.031 161.211
32
IRON LYNX LMGT3
60 Italy C. Schiavoni Italy M. Cressoni
F. Perera
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 30

+11.951

1'36.248

0.024 161.171
33
TF Sport LMGT3
81 Belgium T. Van Rompuy Portugal R. Andrade Ireland C. Eastwood Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 33

+12.000

1'36.297

0.049 161.089
34
TEAM WRT LMGT3
46 United Kingdom A. Al Harthy Italy V. Rossi Belgium M. Martin BMW M4 GT3 33

+12.028

1'36.325

0.028 161.042
35
Proton Competition LMGT3
77 United States R. Hardwick Canada Z. Robichon United Kingdom B. Barker Ford Mustang GT3 30

+12.135

1'36.432

0.107 160.863
36
TEAM WRT LMGT3
31
D. Leung
Indonesia S. Gelael Brazil A. Farfus
BMW M4 GT3 31

+12.326

1'36.623

0.191 160.545
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