LMP
Just to prove that the tortoise had some pace, Nic Lapierre posted the best race lap for the #9 just ten minutes into Hour 3. The third of the trio of Toyotas now had a 3:19.941 beside its name, proving that Lapierre could match the leader’s pace if push came to shove. Conway, however, was still way out in front with Buemi a mere 1.5 seconds behind him. Sandwiched between these two, and the (occasionally) fast-pacing Lapierre stood the two Porsche 919s, Tandy having taken over in the #1 and Earl Bamber pedalling furiously in the #2.
Facing a clearer track than his team-mates, Lapierre continued to post strong times, a purple Sector 1 of 75.822 proving the car could not only match but surpass the times of the leading pair. The pace was an indication of the way the track was steadily improving – and will probably continue to do so as the day progresses, while in-car fuel reserves were diminishing. Five minutes later Conway responded with consecutive purple S1 and S2 times before heading to the pits for the first in a third round of routine stops.
In practice and qualifying we’d grown used to seeing a clear dominance in LMP2 from the Oreca 07 Gibson chassis. Given that the Alpine is essentially another name-branded Oreca, you’d have to search the lower middle order to find the first of the Dallaras, or perhaps a Ligier. The earliest signs that perhaps the Orecas wouldn’t achieve the total class dominance that their qualifying performance had suggested started to appear during the latter period of this third hour. By then, eighth and ninth in class were held by Victor Shaytar’s #27 SMP Dallara P217 and Filipe Albuquerque’s #32 United Autosports Ligier JSP217, although there was still a long way to go.
Having seen the race in LMP1 largely settled, at least for the time being, the race and order in LMP2 was also starting to settle with two and a half hours gone. Nicolas Prost remained under fairly intense pressure from Matthias Beche for the lead, though the Vaillante Rebellion pair seemed perfectly in control and capable of restraining themselves from doing anything risky. This was proven as Beche passed Prost neatly into the first Mulsanne Chicane, no fuss, no drama, and maintaining the Rebellion one-two.
Heading up to this moment, Thomas Laurent had been closing on the pair, steadily narrowing the gap, but all that came to an end when the #38 Jackie Chan car was spotted parked at Indianapolis with frontal damage. It’s still not clear how the damage was sustained, but Laurent managed to get the car underway again, and began a slow tour back to the pits. The car approached the pits in one piece … but then shed various bits of bodywork at pit entry.
Laurent’s misfortune put Alex Brundle through into third, the #37 Jackie Chan DC car circulating 22 seconds behind the Vaillante Rebellions.
Meanwhile, in LMP1, Nick Tandy (#1 Porsche) looked to be chasing down Anthony Davidson (#8 Toyota) by setting a purple first-sector time. Davison was not only losing ground to the chasing Porsches, but also appeared to be slipping back a little from Kobayashi, the pole-setter now in the leading #7 Toyota and again showing his skill with aplomb. That was how the leading group saw out the third hour.
Those closing minutes also saw the Vaillante Rebellion pair gapping at around 3 seconds, Matthias Beche seemingly with a little more pace in hand. Alex Brundle had just pitted the ##37 Jacki Chan DC Racing Oreca from third, looking to make gains by getting in ahead of everyone else as the next round of routine pitstops loomed.
Further down the order the black and white Weathertech liveried Rile MK30 of Keating Motorsport was seen moving rapidly sideways on its way uphill and towards the Dunlop chicane. The car had tangled with a GTE car through the fast right-hander, and tipped sideways. At extraordinarily high speed, the car assembled a neat stack of polystyrene distance boards along its left flank as it careered, seemingly without slowing, for about fifty metres until slithering to an eventual rest, gently touching the tyre wall. With little obvious damage other than to Ben Keating’s pride, the #43 Riley was able to continue.
Just seconds after the end of the third hour the #13 Vaillante Rebellion began the next series of pitstops, pitting from second in LMP12. On the hour, however, the order in the two prototype classes had been …
LMP1
1. #7 Toyota TS050 – 50 laps. Best of 3:18.694
2. #8 Toyota TS050 – 28 seconds
3. #1 Porsche 919-Hybrid – 6 seconds
4. #2 Porsche 919-Hybrid – 26 seconds
5. #9 Toyota TS050. – 22 seconds
LMP2
1. #31 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca – 47 laps
2. #13 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca
3. #24 CEFC Manor TRS Racing
4. #25 CEFC Manor TRS Racing
5. #37 Jackie Chan Racing
GTE
The third hour opened with Aston Martin still leading GTE Pro, but Sorenson the leading #95 no longer had a tail gunner, as second was now occupied by the #66 Ford of Pla (below), out of sequence after its earlier slow puncture. Christensen was third in the #92 Porsche started by Estre, with Serra fourth in the #97 Aston that had started from pole.
Magnussen ran fifth in the #63 Corvette, also out of sequence somewhat after stopping as soon as the yellows were thrown for the Porsche Curves incident between the G-Drive and Proton cars. Pla stopped about 10 minutes into the hour, making the order at the front of GTE Pro representative once more.
In GTE Am, Paul Dalla Lana was now aboard the #98 Aston Martin started by Lamy. He caught and past the erstwhile leader, the #62 WeatherTech Ferrari now with Bill Sweedler at the wheel. Salih Yoluc, meanwhile, had taken over the TF Sport Aston started by Rob Bell and was running third.
Magnussen pitted the out-of-sequence #63 Corvette 20 minutes into the third hour, while Serra got the bit between his teeth and in the #97 Aston and had it back up to second in GTE Pro by halfway through the hour. Dries Vanthoor in the #84 JMW Ferrari was similarly racy, getting past Yoluc for second in GTE Am around the same time.
Routine pitstops saw Christensen and Tincknell stay aboard the #92 Porsche and #67 Ford respectively, while in GTE Am, Yoluc lost a further place as Sweedler moved the WeatherTech Ferrari into third in class. Also in GTE Am, Richard Wee had a moment in the gravel in the #60 Clearwater Ferrari.
The battle for fourth in GTE Pro between Tincknell and Christensen showed no sign of abating, while up ahead things were just as close between Serra and the out-of-sequence Pla for second in the class, with Sorensen about eight seconds up the road in the leading #95 Aston.
At the end of three hours’ running the respective GTE orders were as follows:
GTE Pro
1 #95 Aston
2 #97 Aston
3 #66 Ford
4 #67 Ford
5 #92 Porsche
6 #51 Ferrari
GTE Am
1 #98 AMR Aston
2 #84 JMW Ferrari
3 #62 WeatherTech Ferrari
4 #77 Proton Porsche
5 #90 TF Aston
6 #55 SoR Ferrari
