Penske Porsche Motorsport led Free Practice 3 for the 93rd annual Le Mans 24 Hours this afternoon.
Conditions were sunny and warm once again for the three-hour session this afternoon, though overnight rain showers washed away a lot of the rubber which had been put down to that point. Teams spent most of Free Practice 3 honing in on their race pace, running on used sets of tyres.
But on a fresher set, Mathieu Jaminet in the #5 Penske Porsche 963 set the quickest time of the session with just 37 minutes left, recording a 3:24.717 to go to first place.
Earl Bamber made a late push to put the #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R into second place with a 3:25.533, just a few hundredths up on team-mate Will Stevens’ best in the #12 JOTA Cadillac.
The #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P was fourth, rounding out the top five with the privately-entered #83 AF Corse Ferrari. Behind them were the #20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, #4 Penske Porsche, and the #311 Whelen Cadillac.
Down in 12th was the #6 Penske Porsche, which had been disqualified from yesterday’s first Qualifying session for a minimum weight breach.
In LMP2, TDS Racing’s Mathias Beche recorded the top time in the Pro/Am #29 ORECA 07-Gibson – at 3:36.827. United Autosports’ Pro/Am #23 ORECA was second on the time sheets.
In third was the #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA as the best ‘standard’ LMP2 car, then the #22 United Autosports car and the #199 AO by TF ‘Spike’ machine.
A late improvement from Zacharie Robichon in the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 put the American team up top in its class. Robichon set a 3:55.897 to displace the #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 LMGT3 R into second place.
LMGT3’s top five was completed by the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus, the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin, and the #46 Team WRT BMW.
Incidents of note included a spin at the Ford Chicane for Vista AF Corse’s Thomas Flohr, and Jonas Ried sliding his Iron Lynx-Proton LMP2 off at Indianapolis and into the tyre barriers, before continuing.
At just past half-time, CLX Pure Rxcing’s Aliaksandr Malykhin clipped the tire barrier at the exit of the first Mulsanne Chicane when trying to avoid a crash with Iron Dames’ Celia Martin. That impact brought out a Red Flag for barrier repairs, though Malykhin did drive the damaged #37 ORECA back to the pits.
Simultaneously, Francois Perrodo in the #183 AF Corse ORECA LMP2 slid off at the entry of the Porsche Curves, while trying to get through GT traffic – and skipped through the gravel and into the tire wall.
And in the closing minutes, the #28 IDEC Sport ORECA LMP2 lost its left-front wheel exiting the Porsche Curves. Job van Uitert limped the car back to pit lane while a Slow Zone was deployed.
In addition, the #101 Cadillac WTR V-Series.R underwent an engine change after an issue with its primary V8 motor was detected during the session. The change was to prevent a bigger problem during tonight’s Hyperpole Qualifying, and the blue Cadillac returned to the circuit with seven minutes left.
Hyperpole Qualifying for LMP2 and LMGT3 begins at 20:00 CET, with the Hypercar sessions starting at 21:05 CET.
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