Ferrari AF Corse recorded the fastest times in the final practice session before Hyperpole at Le Mans.
In the penultimate practice before this evening’s Hyperpole, Antonio Fuoco led a Ferrari AF Corse 1-2 to victory in the third Free Practice session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Late in the three-hour practice, Fuoco turned in a fast lap of 3:26.579, which gave him a 0.434-second lead over Alessandro Pier Guidi in the sister No. 51 Ferrari 499P. Pier Guidi’s car only managed 18 laps after spending over an hour and a half in the garage due to an undisclosed fault.
Kamui Kobayashi and Brendon Hartley, driving a pair of Toyota GR010 Hybrids, turned up the third and fourth-fastest performances for Toyota Gazoo Racing, which had held onto the top two spots for the entirety of the session.
The top-five was rounded out by Antonio Felix da Costa’s No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963, which outperformed all three factory Porsche Penske Motorsport cars.
Felipe Nasr’s No. 75 Penske Porsche finished sixth ahead of the No. 311 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series .R in the hands of Jack Aitken in seventh. The two Factory Porsches finished eighth and ninth.
The No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 battled a battery gremlin, the Nos. 2 and 3 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillacs underwent planned engine swaps, with the No. 2 vehicle experiencing a minor electrical issue, and the No. 6 Porsche returned to action following a cooling problem.
Pietro Fittipaldi’s No. 28 JOTA Oreca 07 Gibson, competing in the officially defined spec prototype class, was the category leader in LMP2. Fittipaldi had a lap time of 3:34.071 and was 3.147 seconds faster than the rest of the field, most likely on a qualifying simulation run.
Meanwhile, Francesco Castellacci’s No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE led GTE-Am with a time of 3:53.681. Although there were no red flags, several LMP2 and GTE-Am vehicles had issues during the session.
Rodrigo Sales and Manuel Maldonado both hit the gravel in their respective Nielsen Racing and Panis Racing entries, while Team WRT Orecas suffered damages after separate incidents involving Ferdinand Habsburg and Rui Andrade.
Additionally, Ian James’ No. 98 NorthWest AMR Aston Martin Vantage GTE came to a stop on the racetrack close to pit-out due to an axle failure, necessitating a tow back to the garage.
Next up is Hyperpole, which is slated to begin at 8 p.m. CEST (2 p.m. EDT).
