Peugeot TotalEnergies’ Nick Cassidy ended the final Free Practice session of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship season on top, as wet running continued at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy.
Cassidy recorded a 1:42.706 on his final flying lap of the session aboard the #93 9X8, besting the #36 Alpine Endurance Team A424 of Victor Martins, who had improved moments earlier, by 0.040 seconds.
Overnight rain, which continued to fall lightly this morning, meant that the track was once again soaked for Free Practice. By the end of the 60-minute session, the pace had improved to the point where the crossover to slick tyres was near, but only a couple of LMGT3 teams elected to venture out on dry tyres.
The drying conditions meant that the pace ramped up throughout, leading to a constantly evolving leaderboard.
Behind Cassidy and Martins, Robert Kubica was third in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, with the Polish driver completing the entire session aboard the privateer 499P as he prepared for this afternoon’s Qualifying session.
Kubica was involved in the most significant incident of FP3, when contact between himself and the #007 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie of Tom Gamble at Parabolica caused both cars to rotate. Gamble was awarded a 10-second stop-go penalty having been deemed responsible by the Stewards.
Fourth went to the #20 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde, ahead of Antonio Fuoco’s #50 Ferrari and Daniel Juncadella’s #19 Genesis Magma Racing GMR-001.
The #35 Alpine, #15 BMW, #17 Genesis and #7 Toyota Racing TR010 Hybrid completed the top 10, with the Cadillacs and Aston Martins slipping down the leaderboard in the closing stages having featured towards the front early on.
It was a difficult session for the #51 Ferrari, which spent 47 minutes in the pits as a braking issue was addressed. AF Corse was able to repair the car in time for Alessandro Pier Guidi to complete a single lap at the end of the session.
In contrast, the #36 Alpine and #009 Aston Martin completed the most laps, with every Hypercar competitor except for the #51 499P managing at least 25 tours.
In LMGT3, Alessio Rovera was quickest aboard the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo, with a 1:56.089 the Italian’s best effort.
At the time, this put Rovera over one second clear of the rest of the LMGT3 field, although his margin was subsequently reduced to 0.282 seconds.
Maxime Martin was second aboard the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3, ahead of the sister #79 AMG of Lin Hodenius. Jonny Edgar’s #33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R and Parker Thompson’s #69 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo completed the top five, with the #58 Garage 59 McLaren LMGT3 Evo and #92 The Bend Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) leading the way on mileage.
Multiple cars experienced at least one off-track adventure in the difficult conditions, with the #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R of Peter Dempsey briefly stopping on track inside the final five minutes after a spin at Ascari. Dempsey ran wide, entering a rut at the inside of Turn 9 which had been developing during the session, and seemingly was spun around after catching the inside edge of the kerb whilst rejoining.
The #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3 had to serve a stop-go penalty at the start of FP3, after Esteban Masson was deemed responsible for an incident with the #58 Garage 59 McLaren during yesterday afternoon’s Free Practice 2 session.
Similarly, the #19 Genesis had served a drive-through in FP2 after Mathieu Jaminet was responsible for the incident which saw the #91 Manthey DK Engineering Porsche go off in FP1, which brought out the final Red Flag of the opening running of the weekend.
Qualifying for the final round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship season will take place this afternoon at 14:20 CEST, with the track conditions during which this session will be held currently unclear.
Image courtesy of DPPI
