Le Mans 24h: Alpine demotes Toyota in accident-filled FP3 session
The #36 Alpine A480-Gibson of Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere topped the third Le Mans 24 Hours practice session as the #8 Toyota suffered an accident.
Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt
In the final minutes of Thursday's three-hour session, Lapierre demoted Mike Conway's #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid with a late flyer of 3m26.594 in the grandfathered LMP1 machine.
Conway had set his 3m28.064s benchmark early in the three-hour session, which was marred by two red flags and multiple yellows as several drivers got caught out in the relatively cool conditions.
In the final half hour, Kazuki Nakajima went off the road in the left-hand part of Indianapolis, smashing the rear of his #8 Toyota but ultimately being able to recover his car back to the pits.
After his session-topping lap, Lapierre was lucky to avoid a similar fate when he went off in the same spot.
At the end of the first hour there was a first red flag for a big shunt by Dwight Merriman, who lost control of his #17 IDEC Sport Oreca under braking for the Dunlop chicane and clattered into the inside wall.
Juan Pablo Montoya then had a similar incident at the same corner, bringing out the second red flag when his #21 DragonSpeed Oreca turned sharp right into the wall and sustained severe front-end damage.
Beyond those stoppages, other incidents prevented several drivers from improving their times. Conway's teammate Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 Toyota was on course to lower the Briton's benchmark only to be thwarted by a yellow in the final sector.
Early in the session, Brendon Hartley clocked a time of 3m28.260s in the #8 Toyota, which ended up being good for third.
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010
Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt
Glickenhaus Racing only joined the running one hour into the session after new Pipo engines was installed in both Glickenhaus 007 LMH cars.
Olivier Pla took the #708 entry to fourth with a 3m28.728s, while the #709 sister car didn't set a competitive laptime and appeared to suffer a fresh engine issue in the closing minutes of FP3.
In LMP2, qualifying pace-setter Antonio Felix da Costa took the #38 JOTA Oreca-Gibson to the top of the timesheets in the final minutes with a 3m.30.507s lap, followed by an even quicker 3m30.213s.
He demoted Fabio Scherer, who had set a 3m30.660s at the end of the second hour aboard the #22 United Autosports Oreca.
In the #31 sister entry, Paul di Resta grabbed third with a 3m31.144s in the final hour, ahead of the #65 Panis Racing car of James Allen and the #41 WRT entry of Robin Frijns.
GTE Pro was again topped by the #92 factory Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Kevin Estre, who beat his own early benchmark of 3m48.857s with a 3m48.126s in the second hour.
Estre headed a Weissach clean sweep of the top three places, with Earl Bamber steering the Proton-run WeatherTech Racing Porsche to second, over a second down on Estre with a 3m49.435s, but three tenths quicker than the #91 works Porsche of Richard Lietz.
Alessandro Pier Guidi was fourth in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, narrowly ahead of stablemate Daniel Serra's #52 machine and the HubAuto Porsche of Dries Vanthoor.
Corvette Racing brought up the rear of the class courtesy of Tommy Milner in the #64 Corvette C8.R and Nicky Catsburg in the #63 machine.
In GTE Am, which was also dominated by Porsche, Julien Andlauer set a late 3m50.167s in the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 to go quickest.
Andlauer denied Matteo Cairoli, who had set a 3m50.792s in the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche earlier on.
Matt Campbell completed a 911 clean sweep of the top three in the #77 Dempsey Proton entry.
Action continues at 9:00pm local time for Hyperpole, in which the fastest six cars in each class from last night's Q1 session will battle for pole, immediately followed by night practice.
Le Mans 24 Hours - Practice 3 results:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 36 |
Andre Negrao
Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 3'26.594 | |
2 | 7 |
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 3'28.064 | 1.470 |
3 | 8 |
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 3'28.260 | 1.666 |
4 | 708 |
Pipo Derani
Franck Mailleux Olivier Pla |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 3'28.728 | 2.134 |
5 | 38 |
Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'30.213 | 3.619 |
6 | 22 |
Philip Hanson
Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'30.660 | 4.066 |
7 | 23 |
Paul di Resta
Alex Lynn Wayne Boyd |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.144 | 4.550 |
8 | 65 |
Julien Canal
Will Stevens James Allen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.358 | 4.764 |
9 | 31 |
Robin Frijns
Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.381 | 4.787 |
10 | 41 |
Robert Kubica
Louis Deletraz Ye Yifei |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.865 | 5.271 |
11 | 82 |
Ryan Cullen
Oliver Jarvis Felipe Nasr |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.909 | 5.315 |
12 | 21 |
Henrik Hedman
Ben Hanley Juan Pablo Montoya |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.178 | 5.584 |
13 | 34 |
Jakub Smiechowski
Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.188 | 5.594 |
14 | 17 |
Dwight Merriman
Thomas Laurent Ryan Dalziel |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.347 | 5.753 |
15 | 25 |
John Falb
Roberto Merhi Rui Andrade |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 3'32.362 | 5.768 |
16 | 26 |
Roman Rusinov
Franco Colapinto Nyck de Vries |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 3'32.397 | 5.803 |
17 | 70 |
Esteban Garcia
Loic Duval Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.398 | 5.804 |
18 | 29 |
Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.648 | 6.054 |
19 | 28 |
Sean Gelael
Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.693 | 6.099 |
20 | 24 |
Patrick Kelly
Gabriel Aubry Simon Trummer |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.798 | 6.204 |
21 | 48 |
Paul Lafargue
Paul-Loup Chatin Patrick Pilet |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.119 | 6.525 |
22 | 32 |
Nico Jamin
Jonathan Aberdein Manuel Maldonado |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.328 | 6.734 |
23 | 30 |
Rene Binder
Memo Rojas Tristan Gommendy |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.528 | 6.934 |
24 | 20 |
Dennis Andersen
Ricky Taylor Marco Sorensen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.578 | 6.984 |
25 | 1 |
Tatiana Calderon
Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.688 | 8.094 |
26 | 49 |
Anders Fjordbach
Jan Magnussen Kevin Magnussen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'35.520 | 8.926 |
27 | 84 |
Takuma Aoki
Nigel Bailly Matthieu Lahaye |
Oreca 07 | INNOVATIVE CAR | 3'36.877 | 10.283 |
28 | 709 |
Ryan Briscoe
Richard Westbrook Romain Dumas |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 3'36.941 | 10.347 |
29 | 39 |
Vincent Capillaire
Arnold Robin Maxime Robin |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'37.031 | 10.437 |
30 | 74 |
James Winslow
John Corbett Tom Cloet |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'43.673 | 17.079 |
31 | 44 |
Miro Konopka
Oliver Webb Matej Konopka |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'47.444 | 20.850 |
32 | 92 |
Kevin Estre
Neel Jani Michael Christensen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'48.126 | 21.532 |
33 | 79 |
Cooper MacNeil
Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.435 | 22.841 |
34 | 91 |
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.789 | 23.195 |
35 | 88 |
Julien Andlauer
Dominique Bastien Lance David Arnold |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'50.167 | 23.573 |
36 | 51 |
Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado Côme Ledogar |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.311 | 23.717 |
37 | 52 |
Daniel Serra
Miguel Molina Sam Bird |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.379 | 23.785 |
38 | 72 |
Dries Vanthoor
Alvaro Parente Maxime Martin |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.631 | 24.037 |
39 | 56 |
Egidio Perfetti
Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'50.792 | 24.198 |
40 | 77 |
Christian Ried
Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'50.823 | 24.229 |
41 | 64 |
Tommy Milner
Nick Tandy Alexander Sims |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.012 | 24.418 |
42 | 99 |
Harry Tincknell
Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak Florian Latorre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'51.212 | 24.618 |
43 | 63 |
Antonio Garcia
Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.327 | 24.733 |
44 | 83 |
François Perrodo
Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'51.424 | 24.830 |
45 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr
Giancarlo Fisichella Francesco Castellacci |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'51.489 | 24.895 |
46 | 85 |
Rahel Frey
Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'51.703 | 25.109 |
47 | 86 |
Michael Wainwright
Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'51.802 | 25.208 |
48 | 55 |
Duncan Cameron
David Perel Matthew Griffin |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'51.909 | 25.315 |
49 | 18 |
Andrew Haryanto
Alessio Picariello Marco Seefried |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.011 | 25.417 |
50 | 33 |
Ben Keating
Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.084 | 25.490 |
51 | 98 |
Paul Dalla Lana
Nicki Thiim Marcos Gomes |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.171 | 25.577 |
52 | 60 |
Claudio Schiavoni
Paolo Ruberti Raffaele Giammaria |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'52.447 | 25.853 |
53 | 57 |
Takeshi Kimura
Scott Andrews Mikkel Jensen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'52.471 | 25.877 |
54 | 47 |
Roberto Lacorte
Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'52.532 | 25.938 |
55 | 95 |
John Hartshorne
Ollie Hancock Ross Gunn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.712 | 26.118 |
56 | 80 |
Matteo Cressoni
Rino Mastronardi Callum Ilott |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'53.020 | 26.426 |
57 | 777 |
Satoshi Hoshino
Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'53.423 | 26.829 |
58 | 66 |
Thomas Neubauer
Rodrigo Sales Jody Fannin |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'54.159 | 27.565 |
59 | 69 |
Robert Renauer
Ralf Bohn Rolf Ineichen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'54.773 | 28.179 |
60 | 46 |
Dennis Olsen
Anders Buchardt Robby Foley |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'56.561 | 29.967 |
61 | 71 |
Brendan Iribe
Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'56.576 | 29.982 |
62 | 388 |
Pierre Ehret
Christian Hook Jeroen Bleekemolen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'58.989 | 32.395 |
View full results |
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