It was an 11 AM kickoff for final practice for the Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race at Circuit of the Americas – where Alex Lynn in the #2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R finished with the fastest time of the weekend so far.
Free Practice 3 began under the cover of clouds with the coolest conditions we’ve seen all weekend. In the first ten minutes, a flurry of fast times rolled in, beginning when Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid set the fastest time of the weekend at that time, a 1:51.533.
But a minute later, Lynn would come through in the blue Cadillac with a 1:51.471 to take and keep the top spot in Hypercar.
It sets up the tantalising prospect of the American marque taking pole position for its home race – but the leaderboard was very close, and much could still change once Qualifying actually gets underway.
Antonio Fuoco was second-fastest in the #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P with a 1:51.511, and Kobayashi’s best lap stood as the third-fastest.
In fourth was Robert Kubica in the yellow #83 AF Corse Ferrari, with Sebastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota in fifth.
Norman Nato in the #12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 was the fastest of his marque in sixth, ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 Ferrari, and Mick Schumacher in the #36 Alpine Endurance Team A424 in eighth.
Just 0.324 seconds covered the top eight from this session, 0.383s covered the top ten, and less than two seconds covered the entire 18-car Hypercar field.
Hypercar Championship leader Kevin Estre sat just outside the top ten, 11th in the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, hampered by a damper problem during the session.
Meanwhile, in LMGT3, Corvettes dominated FP3 after leading FP2 yesterday. Daniel Juncadella again set the fastest time in the #82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R (2:05.178) during the final moments of the free practice session. It is two-tenths faster than the sister car, the #81 of Charlie Eastwood (2:05.351).
The #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 driven by Davide Rigon was third fastest, some four-tenths of a second behind the fastest Corvette (2:05.542).
The fourth fastest was the #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo (2:05.549).
Further down in the ranks, the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 led the LMGT3 time sheets at various moments in this session. They were fifth fastest (2:05.621) in the hands of Alex Riberas.
The LMGT3 Championship leading car, the #92 Manthey Purexcing Porsche 911 GT3 R had another disappointing session. Klaus Bachler’s best time landed him tenth in class only (2:06.656).
Finally, Sean Gelael received a five-minute stop-and-go penalty for constant abuse of track limits during yesterday’s second free practice session. His car, the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 was the slowest of the LMGT3s this morning (2:06.565).
Otherwise, the session was drama-free, even when accounting for a brief Full Course Yellow for debris on track.
Qualifying begins today at 3:00 PM CDT (local time).
