Some hit the track straight away, others took their time to leave pit lane during a sun-soaked Free Practice 3 session for the centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Conditions were quite warm at Circuit de la Sarthe. This picture-perfect weather might give way to cloudy skies and rain in 48 hours – as an old saying from locals goes, “it always rains at Le Mans.”
For the sake of posterity, the #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P went fastest. Antonio Fuoco set a flying lap of 3:26.579 within the final 15 minutes to lead the way. All seems good at Ferrari ahead of Hyperpole.
The #51 Ferrari spent half the session undergoing transmission repairs, but once that was done, it took to the track and ran trouble-free to the chequered flag – and Alessandro Pier Guidi went second-fastest with a 3:27.013.
Toyota Gazoo Racing dove right in from the start of Free Practice 3, logging laps and setting early benchmark times. The #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid was third-fastest courtesy of a 3:27.580 set by Kamui Kobayashi, and the #8 Toyota was fourth, just two-tenths of a second in arrears. Both cars completed upwards of 36 laps.
Three cars completed 40 laps, including the #8 Toyota, and two Porsche Penske Motorsports 963s, the #5 and #75. Customer squad Hertz Team JOTA also flashed some pace and made up for the time lost in Qualifying Practice yesterday, going fifth-fastest, while the Penske factory cars were sixth, eighth, and ninth.
Cadillac Racing took extra care to make all was good with its two Cadillac V-Series.Rs, the blue #2 and gold #3, ahead of Hyperpole this evening. The #2 had to end its session early with a fuel cell problem which Earl Bamber hopes will be resolved before the two-hour interim is finished. In the meantime, Action Express Racing’s #311 went seventh-fastest. Prior to the session, DSC understands that all three Cadillacs underwent a planned engine change.
But there was also a worrisome sight in the last half-hour for fans of Peugeot. The #94 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 limped back into pit lane with smoke coming off the back – and the smoke was too think to be a mere body rub.
All 24 LMP2 cars were back in action this afternoon after a change of chassis put Tower Motorsports back in the game with a rebuilt #13 Oreca 07-Gibson.
Only the #28 JOTA Oreca went for a push lap. Incredibly, Pietro Fittipaldi’s 3:34.071 was the fastest lap of the weekend through four sessions, and he looks to be a solid bet to put the “Mighty ’28” on the pole in just a couple of hours.
LMP2 action saw a number of runners and riders finding the limit and stumbling somewhat over it. Ferdinand Habsburg had his dramas early when he spun off and hit the barrier at Indianapolis Corner. Good news, however, is that the #31 Team WRT Oreca was able to get back on track in the last 30 minutes.
Super Bronze, Salih Yoluc, did clip too much of the grass on the transition from the Forest Esses to Tertre Rouge in his #923 Racing Team Turkey Oreca but came away with only minor damage.
Rodrigo Sales channelled his inner ten-pin bowler when he wiped out a stack of bollards as he lost control and went into the gravel at Mulsanne Corner. The #14 Nielsen Racing Oreca, due to take part in Hyperpole, avoided major damage.
It was also an eventful session for Anglo-Venezuelan driver Manuel Maldonado. He went off at Arnage Corner just over an hour into FP3, then with eight minutes left, the sight of the #65 Panis Racing Oreca hitting the gravel at the second Mulsanne Chicane brought out a Full Course Yellow and effectively ended the session.
With the exception of the D’Station Racing Aston Martin (that is now fully built up ahead of FP4), all GTE-Am teams found track time, mostly circulating a couple of seconds shy of qualifying times as race performance came into focus.
The early pace-setter was Iron Lynx’s Matteo Cressoni, the #60 Porsche the best of seven 3:54’s at the top of the GTE-Am timing screen.
With no Porsches featuring in Hyperpole this was all about race setup, fuel loads and tyre performance. Ben Barker was the first into the 3:53’s for GR Racing before Francesco Castellacci pushed back for AF Corse and Ferrari, a 3:53.681 would remain the session’s best. The #54 silver Ferrari will be among the GTE-Am Hyperpole contenders.
Northwest AMR’s Ian James exited the Ford Chicane awkwardly, a rubbing tyre slowing the car to a crawl along the pit straight. The #98 Aston Martin driver sensibly brought the car to rest at pit out. Intervention to recover and return to its garage saw the car sit out the rest of the session while a broken wishbone was replaced.
Julien Piguet’s first turn of the #21 AF Corse saw the car limping back to its pit just into the final hour but resumed in the hands of Simon Mann, while Andrew Haryanto’s Walkenhorst Motorsport Ferrari 488 also returned slowly to its pit late in the session.
TF Sport’s rebuild of the #777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin was being finessed, Satoshi Hoshino confirming the car would be ready for the final Free Practice session later this evening.
The fan-favourite Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 spent most of the session in its garage taking on the fresh engine that should see it through the race.
The 5.8 litre V8 motor has run well throughout the sessions so far but arrived here with previous test mileage, its replacement very much part of the Hendrick Motorsports project plan, other components also being swapped in preparing the ZL1’s race trim. With 20 minutes of the session to go Jenson Button’s out lap was spoiled by a puncture, a 3:52.752 his restorative time before returning to the garage.
Jimmie Johnson had commented that they would not be taking on Hyperpole and that he was loving his Le Mans experience, this passion project beyond NASCAR the beginning of a hopeful plan to return in other areas of motorsport.
