Le Mans 24h: Rebellion tops curtailed third practice

Thursday night’s third practice session was the only opportunity for drivers and teams to get some necessary night running in ahead of the race.

Most of the session’s fastest times were set in the first half, after which many teams switched to tyre work.

Deletraz hit the top of the timesheets in the first hour, setting a 3m19.158s lap in the #3 Rebellion R-13 LMP1 privateer.

Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi improved on his early lap times in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid to set a 3m19.638s in the second hour, closely followed by the second Rebellion of Gustavo Menezes.

Sebastien Buemi was fourth in the #8 Toyota. LMP1’s fifth and final entrant ByKolles lost a lot of track time after Bruno Spengler spanked the barrier at Tertre Rouge 90 minutes into the session, bringing out a red flag.

In LMP2 Tristan Gommendy set the fastest time early on in the #30 Duqueine Oreca 07, his 3m28.013s remaining untouched for the entirety of the session.

United Autosport’s Job van Uitert took second with just over an hour to go in the #32 Oreca, nine tenths shy of Gommendy’s benchmark. With 30 minutes remaining Jean-Eric Vergne lifted his #26 G-Drive Oreca to third, another tenth in arrears.

Both IDEC Sport LMP2 cars remained in the pits after they suffered heavy accidents earlier on Thursday, the team's #28 Oreca requiring a new tub.

In GTE Pro Porsche’s Kevin Estre took the lead in the first hour.

The Frenchman’s 3m52.177s aboard the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 was three tenths faster than Maxime Martin in the #97 Aston Martin Vantage, who set his series of fast times in the final hour.

Marco Sorensen took third in the sister #95 Aston, followed by James Calado (#51 AF Corse) in the first of the Ferraris.

Kei Cozzolino was quickest in GTE Am with the Japanese MR Racing Ferrari, his 3m54.490s effort bettering Paolo Ruberti’s time in the final hour.

In the #98 Aston Augusto Farfus also dipped below the benchmark Ruberti set in the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari. The Brazilian got to within one tenth of Cozzolino but settled for second.

The session was curtailed 15 minutes early after a huge accident for Bonamy Grimes in the Red River Ferrari. The Briton lost his car under braking for the first Mulsanne chicane and clattered into the barriers, but climbed out unhurt.

Action continues on Friday with a short fourth practice session at 10.00am local time, followed by a Hyperpole shootout in which the six fastest cars of each category will fight for pole.

Practice results:

Pos.	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap	Int
1	3	Romain Dumas  Nathanaël Berthon  Louis Deletraz	Rebellion R13	LMP1	3'19.158
2	7	Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	3'19.638	0.480	0.480
3	1	Bruno Senna  Norman Nato  Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13	LMP1	3'19.775	0.617	0.137
4	8	Sebastien Buemi  Kazuki Nakajima  Brendon Hartley	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	3'20.673	1.515	0.898
5	30	Jonathan Hirschi  Konstantin Tereshchenko  Tristan Gommendy	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.013	8.855	7.340
6	32	William Owen  Alex Brundle  Job van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.924	9.766	0.911
7	26	Roman Rusinov  Jean-Eric Vergne  Mikkel Jensen	Aurus 01	LMP2	3'29.082	9.924	0.158
8	22	Philip Hanson  Filipe Albuquerque  Paul di Resta	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'29.341	10.183	0.259
9	29	Frits van Eerd  Giedo van der Garde  Nyck de Vries	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'29.364	10.206	0.023
10	31	Nico Jamin  Julien Canal  Matthieu Vaxivière	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.337	11.179	0.973
11	37	Ho-Pin Tung  Gabriel Aubry  Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.402	11.244	0.065
12	42	Nicolas Lapierre  Antonin Borga  Alexandre Coigny	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.478	11.320	0.076
13	36	André Negrão  Pierre Ragues  Thomas Laurent	Alpine A470	LMP2	3'30.652	11.494	0.174
14	16	Ryan Cullen  Oliver Jarvis  Nick Tandy	Aurus 01	LMP2	3'30.652	11.494	0.000
15	38	Anthony Davidson  Antonio Felix da Costa  Roberto Gonzalez	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.837	11.679	0.185
16	27	Henrik Hedman  Ben Hanley  Renger van der Zande	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.899	11.741	0.062
17	35	Nobuya Yamanaka  Nick Foster  Roberto Merhi	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'31.067	11.909	0.168
18	4	Tom Dillmann  Bruno Spengler  Oliver Webb	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	3'31.596	12.438	0.529
19	33	Kenta Yamashita  Mark Patterson  Anders Fjordbach	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'31.870	12.712	0.274
20	21	Juan Pablo Montoya  Timothe Buret  Memo Rojas	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'31.879	12.721	0.009
21	25	John Falb  Simon Trummer  Matthew McMurry	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.034	12.876	0.155
22	39	James Allen  Vincent Capillaire  Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.476	13.318	0.442
23	24	Garret Grist  Alex Kapadia  Anthony Wells	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.759	13.601	0.283
24	34	Jakub Smiechowski  Rene Binder  Matevos Isaakyan	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'33.246	14.088	0.487
25	50	Tatiana Calderón  Sophia Floersch  Beitske Visser	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'34.442	15.284	1.196
26	47	Roberto Lacorte  Andrea Belicchi  Giorgio Sernagiotto	Dallara P217	LMP2	3'34.654	15.496	0.212
27	11	Adrien Tambay  Erik Maris  Christophe d'Ansembourg	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'34.734	15.576	0.080
28	92	Michael Christensen  Kevin Estre  Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	3'52.177	33.019	17.443
29	97	Maxime Martin  Alex Lynn  Harry Tincknell	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	3'52.442	33.284	0.265
30	95	Nicki Thiim  Marco Sørensen  Richard Westbrook	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	3'52.632	33.474	0.190
31	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi  James Calado  Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'52.800	33.642	0.168
32	91	Gianmaria Bruni  Richard Lietz  Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	3'53.093	33.935	0.293
33	82	Olivier Pla  Sebastien Bourdais  Jules Gounon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'53.367	34.209	0.274
34	71	Davide Rigon  Miguel Molina  Sam Bird	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'53.760	34.602	0.393
35	63	Cooper MacNeil  Toni Vilander  Jeffrey Segal	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'53.843	34.685	0.083
36	70	Takeshi Kimura  Vincent Abril  Kei Cozzolino	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'54.490	35.332	0.647
37	98	Paul Dalla Lana  Ross Gunn  Augusto Farfus	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'54.590	35.432	0.100
38	60	Claudio Schiavoni  Sergio Pianezzola  Paolo Ruberti	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'54.854	35.696	0.264
39	88	Thomas Preining  Dominique Bastien  Adrien de Leener	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'54.868	35.710	0.014
40	75	Rino Mastronardi  Matteo Cressoni  Andrea Piccini	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'54.938	35.780	0.070
41	77	Christian Ried  Riccardo Pera  Matthew Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'55.092	35.934	0.154
42	61	Francesco Piovanetti  Oswaldo Negri Jr  Côme Ledogar	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.431	36.273	0.339
43	83	François Perrodo  Emmanuel Collard  Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.445	36.287	0.014
44	54	Thomas Flohr  Francesco Castellacci  Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.936	36.778	0.491
45	90	Salih Yoluc  Charlie Eastwood  Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'55.967	36.809	0.031
46	86	Michael Wainwright  Ben Barker  Andrew Watson	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'56.165	37.007	0.198
47	99	Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak  Lucas Légeret  Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'56.168	37.010	0.003
48	57	Ben Keating  Felipe Fraga  Jeroen Bleekemolen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'56.172	37.014	0.004
49	56	Egidio Perfetti  Larry ten Voorde  Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'56.408	37.250	0.236
50	78	Horst Felbermayr Jr.  Michele Beretta  Max van Splunteren	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'56.865	37.707	0.457
51	72	Morris Chen  Tom Blomqvist  Marcos Gomes	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'57.408	38.250	0.543
52	85	Manuela Gostner  Rahel Frey  Michelle Gatting	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'59.065	39.907	1.657
53	55	Duncan Cameron  Aaron Scott  Matt Griffin	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'59.500	40.342	0.435
54	89	Philippe Haezebrouck  Julien Piguet  Andreas Laskaratos	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	4'00.448	41.290	0.948
55	66	Richard Heistand  Max Root  Jan Magnussen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	4'00.839	41.681	0.391
56	62	Bonamy Grimes  Johnny Mowlem  Charles Hollings	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	4'03.239	44.081	2.400
57	52	Christoph Ulrich  Steffen Gorig  Alexander West	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	4'06.052	46.894	2.813
58	17	Dwight Merriman  Kyle Tilley  John Kennard	Oreca 07	LMP2
59	28	Paul Lafargue  Paul Loup Chatin  Richard Bradley	Oreca 07	LMP2