Mathieu Jaminet was the first driver to set a representative time in damp conditions, getting down to a 1m46.370s in the #6 Porsche 963 with just 40 minutes remaining.
He then pitted to hand off the Penske-run GTP car to Nick Tandy.
The Briton worked down into the 1m47s, and reset the session benchmark to 1min46.206s before the return of rain with half an hour to go.
The only other GTP class car to set a time in the damp was the Action Express Racing Cadillac V-LMDh, in which Pipo Derani drove for nine laps but was six seconds off the lead Porsche.
He then handed off to Jack Aitken, who cut the time down to 1min48.804sec, but that was 2.6s off Tandy.
Two-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden bravely headed out on track as the green flag waved around 20 minutes after the first red, and his Tower Motorsports LMP2 entry cut down into the 1min56s although once he pitted and track conditions continued to improve, he was quickly displaced by Nicolas Lapierre in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports machine and then George Kurtz of Crowdstrike Racing by APR.
When this pair pitted, Newgarden’s team-mate Scott McLaughlin headed out once more with Lapierre’s mark at 1m55.083s, but first Job van Uitert in the #35 TDS Racing lowered the P1 target to 1m52.727s, with Ryan Dalziel of Era Motorsport second, 1.5s away.
McLaughlin chipped away at his time as he adapted to the damp conditions, and went fastest by 0.21s.
He stretched his margin over his nearest opposition – Dalziel and Matthieu Vaxiviere of AF Corse – by 0.414 and 0.49sec respectively.
However, Dalziel eventually worked down to a 1min50.756sec, 1.2sec ahead of McLaughlin.
Antonio Serravalle clocked fastest time in the FastMD Racing Duqueine, a 1m55.387s which left it 1.2s faster than the MRS GT Racing car of Guilherme de Oliveira.
These were the only LMP3 cars to hit the track in this session.
Antonio Garcia looked very impressive in the Corvette C8.R in the damp conditions, with a 1m58.104s, holding off Klaus Bachler in the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R to the tune of half a second.
But Marvin Kirchhofer in the GTD Inception Racing McLaren 720S eclipsed that with a 1m57.353s, and Jules Gounon’s WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 went top of the GTD Pro cars, albeit still 0.7s off Kirchhofer.
However, with half an hour to go, Gounon landed a 1min57.084sec to lead the GTD field, just as the rain restarted.
Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 6 |
Mathieu Jaminet Nick Tandy Dane Cameron |
GTP | Porsche 963 | 29 | 1'46.206 | |
2 | 31 |
Pipo Derani Alexander Sims Jack Aitken |
GTP | Cadillac V-LMDh | 18 | 1'48.804 | 2.598 |
3 | 18 |
Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel Christian Rasmussen Oliver Jarvis |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 30 | 1'50.756 | 4.550 |
4 | 8 |
John Farano Scott McLaughlin Josef Newgarden Kyffin Simpson |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 36 | 1'51.960 | 5.754 |
5 | 51 |
Eric Lux Devlin DeFrancesco Austin Cindric Pietro Fittipaldi |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 23 | 1'51.978 | 5.772 |
6 | 88 |
François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Nicklas Nielsen |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 39 | 1'52.213 | 6.007 |
7 | 04 |
George Kurtz Ben Hanley Matt McMurry Esteban Gutierrez |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 30 | 1'52.293 | 6.087 |
8 | 52 |
Ben Keating Paul-Loup Chatin Alex Quinn Nicolas Lapierre |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 27 | 1'52.604 | 6.398 |
9 | 35 |
François Heriau Giedo van der Garde Josh Pierson Job Van Uitert |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 13 | 1'52.691 | 6.485 |
10 | 87 |
Yu Kanamaru James Vance Antonio Serravalle Nicholas Boulle |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 30 | 1'55.387 | 9.181 |
11 | 43 |
Sebastian Alvarez Danial Frost Alex Vogel Guilherme de |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 39 | 1'56.585 | 10.379 |
12 | 79 |
Cooper MacNeil Daniel Juncadella Jules Gounon Maro Engel |
GTD PRO | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 21 | 1'57.084 | 10.878 |
13 | 70 |
Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff Ollie Millroy Marvin Kirchhofer |
GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 20 | 1'57.353 | 11.147 |
14 | 3 |
Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Tommy Milner |
GTD PRO | Corvette C8.R GTD | 23 | 1'58.104 | 11.898 |
15 | 63 |
Andrea Caldarelli Mirko Bortolotti Jordan Lee Pepper Romain Grosjean |
GTD PRO | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 | 30 | 1'58.394 | 12.188 |
16 | 19 |
Raffaele Giammaria Frank Perera Claudio Schiavoni Rolf Ineichen |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 | 25 | 1'58.623 | 12.417 |
17 | 9 |
Klaus Bachler Patrick Pilet Laurens Vanthoor |
GTD PRO | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 19 | 1'58.631 | 12.425 |
18 | 47 |
Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco Alessandro Balzan |
GTD | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 32 | 1'58.705 | 12.499 |
19 | 1 |
Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis Maxime Martin |
GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 24 | 1'58.759 | 12.553 |
20 | 44 |
John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly Nicki Thiim |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 40 | 1'58.798 | 12.592 |
21 | 80 |
PJ Hyett Seb Priaulx Gunnar Jeannette Harry Tincknell |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 22 | 1'58.913 | 12.707 |
22 | 83 |
Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Doriane Pin |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 | 31 | 1'59.482 | 13.276 |
23 | 77 |
Alan Brynjolfsson Trent Hindman Max Root Kevin Estre |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 7 | 1'59.712 | 13.506 |
24 | 21 |
Mann Simon Luis Perez Companc Miguel Molina Francesco Castellacci |
GTD | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 24 | 2'01.073 | 14.867 |
25 | 62 |
Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra Davide Rigon |
GTD PRO | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 7 | 2'03.342 | 17.136 |
26 | 16 |
Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen Zacharie Robichon Dennis Olsen |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 5 | 2'03.420 | 17.214 |
27 | 24 |
Philipp Eng Augusto Farfus Marco Wittmann Colton Herta |
GTP | BMW M Hybrid V8 | 4 | 2'07.700 | 21.494 |
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