Le Mans 24 Hours: Ferrari locks out 1-2 ahead of Toyota in third practice

Toyota had seemed set to return to the top of the Le Mans timesheets for the first time since opening practice on Wednesday, with Kamui Kobayashi heading the majority of the session.

However, a late 3m26.579s from Antonio Fuoco in the #50 499P LMH smashed Kobayashi's best by almost a second.

And, with eight minutes to go, Alessandro Pier Guidi set a 3m27.013s lap to go second, despite the #51 Ferrari having spent the first half of the three-hour session in the pits.

The Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs were denied the chance to respond as a late full-course yellow, when Manuel Maldonado went off, hampered any further late improvements. Instead, Kobayashi had to settle for third in the #7 Toyota.

Mathieu Jaminet in the #75 Porsche 963 LMDh was the initial pacesetter on a 3m28.454s but was soon usurped by the two Toyotas.

Kobayashi claimed top spot with a 3m27.822s in the #7 car, before Sebastien Buemi went second in the sister #8 machine on 3m27.879s.

However, Kobayashi then improved to a 3m27.580s that looked set to be the benchmark for the remainder of third practice until the late Ferrari efforts.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Brendon Hartley improved the #8's best to a 3m27.866s to finish up almost three tenths adrift.

Next up was the #38 Jota-run Porsche with Antonio Felix da Costa setting a 3m27.927s very early on, which remained good enough for fifth.

Another of the later improvers was the fastest of the factory Porsches, Felipe Nasr setting a 3m28.135s to end up sixth in the #75.

Seventh was the Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh, with Jack Aitken rising up the leaderboard in the final half hour.

Behind the other two factory Porsches was the best of the Peugeot 9X8 LMHs, Mikkel Jensen's 3m29.096s 2.5s adrift of the Ferraris to complete the top 10.

Further back were the two Cadillac Racing entries and the second Peugeot, while the best Glickenhaus was 13th.

Regular LMP2 pacesetter Jota was back to the top of the LMP2 timesheets, Pietro Fittipaldi's second lap of the session, a 3m34.071s, good enough to lead throughout in the #28 ORECA-Gibson 07.

#28 Jota Oreca 07 - Gibson of David Heinemeier Hansson, Oliver Rasmussen, Pietro Fittipaldi (Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt)

Mathias Beche also held second since the early laps for Nielsen, although his best was some three seconds slower than what Fittipaldi managed, while the #34 Inter Europol ORECA wound up third.

Several of the other LMP2 entries were in strife with Ferdinand Habsburg spinning into the barriers exiting Indianapolis in the opening moments of the session in the #31 WRT machine.

Maldonado also went into the gravel in the #65 Panis Racing entry at the same corner - the first of two offs for the Venezuelan - while Rodrigo Sales had a spin in the #14 Nielsen car at Mulsanne after taking over from Beche.

Ben Barker and Matteo Cressoni spent the opening chunk of the session trading the GTE Am class lead.

After this flurry of improvements, Barker spent a while on top in the #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR from Cressoni's #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

But, at the midpoint of the practice running, Francesco Castellacci in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari went quicker with a 3m53.681s to end up a tenth quicker than Barker's best with Iron Lynx relegated to third.

Le Mans 24 Hours third practice results

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	3'26.579
2	51	James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	3'27.013	0.434
3	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	3'27.580	1.001
4	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	3'27.866	1.287
5	38	Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens Ye Yifei	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	3'27.927	1.348
6	75	Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr Nick Tandy	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	3'28.135	1.556
7	311	Jack Aitken Pipo Derani Alexander Sims	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	3'28.277	1.698
8	5	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	3'28.548	1.969
9	6	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	3'28.826	2.247
10	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	3'29.207	2.628
11	3	Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon Renger van der Zande	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	3'29.445	2.866
12	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	3'30.167	3.588
13	708	Ryan Briscoe Romain Dumas Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	3'30.433	3.854
14	2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	3'30.989	4.410
15	4	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Tristan Vautier	Vanwall Vandervell 680	HYPERCAR	3'31.343	4.764
16	709	Nathanael Berthon Esteban Gutierrez Franck Mailleux	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	3'31.458	4.879
17	28	Pietro Fittipaldi David Heinemeier Hansson Oliver Rasmussen	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'34.071	7.492
18	14	Mathias Beche Ben Hanley Rodrigo Sales	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.218	10.639
19	34	Albert Costa Fabio Scherer Jakub Smiechowski	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.315	10.736
20	22	Filipe Albuquerque Philip Hanson Frederick Lubin	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.369	10.790
21	45	James Allen Colin Braun George Kurtz	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.376	10.797
22	23	Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.385	10.806
23	30	Rene Binder Neel Jani Nicolas Pino	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.553	10.974
24	39	Giedo van der Garde Roberto Lacorte Patrick Pilet	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.554	10.975
25	48	Paul-Loup Chatin Laurents Hörr Paul Lafargue	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.648	11.069
26	63	Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat Doriane Pin	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.697	11.118
27	37	Alexandre Coigny Malthe Jakobsen Nicolas Lapierre	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.773	11.194
28	47	Reshad de Gerus Vlad Lomko Simon Pagenaud	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.827	11.248
29	80	Ben Barnicoat Norman Nato François Perrodo	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.066	11.487
30	9	Juan Manuel Correa Filip Ugran Bent Viscaal	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.146	11.567
31	36	Julien Canal Charles Milesi Matthieu Vaxiviere	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.170	11.591
32	41	Rui Andrade Louis Deletraz Robert Kubica	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.201	11.622
33	13	René Rast Ricky Taylor Thomas Steven	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.426	11.847
34	923	Tom Gamble Dries Vanthoor Salih Yoluc	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.574	11.995
35	65	Tijmen van der Helm Manuel Maldonado Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.688	12.109
36	43	Maxime Martin Tom Van Rompuy Ugo de Wilde	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.953	12.374
37	32	Anders Fjordbach Mark Kvamme Jan Magnussen	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'39.164	12.585
38	31	Robin Frijns Sean Gelael Ferdinand Habsburg	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'39.609	13.030
39	10	Gabriel Aubry Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'39.675	13.096
40	35	Olli Caldwell Andre Negrao Memo Rojas	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'39.921	13.342
41	24	Jenson Button Jimmie Johnson Mike Rockenfeller	Chevrolet Camaro ZL1	INNOVATIVE CAR	3'52.752	26.173
42	54	Francesco Castellacci Thomas Flohr Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'53.681	27.102
43	86	Benjamin Barker Riccardo Pera Michael Wainwright	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'53.839	27.260
44	60	Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello Claudio Schiavoni	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'53.868	27.289
45	77	Julien Andlauer Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'54.238	27.659
46	83	Luis Perez Companc Alessio Rovera Lilou Wadoux	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'54.429	27.850
47	21	Simon Mann Ulysse De Pauw Julien Piguet	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'54.638	28.059
48	16	Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen Zacharie Robichon	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'54.755	28.176
49	56	Matteo Cairoli PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'54.775	28.196
50	33	Nick Catsburg Ben Keating Nicolás Varrone	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE AM	3'54.809	28.230
51	66	Thomas Neubauer Giacomo Petrobelli Louis Prette	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'54.951	28.372
52	911	Michael Fassbender Richard Lietz Martin Rump	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'55.266	28.687
53	57	Scott Huffaker Takeshi Kimura Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.269	28.690
54	25	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'55.400	28.821
55	85	Sarah Bovy Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'55.587	29.008
56	74	Kei Cozzolino Yorikatsu Tsujiko Naoki Yokomizo	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.890	29.311
57	72	Valentin Hasse-Clot Arnold Robin Maxime Robin	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'56.173	29.594
58	100	Andrew Haryanto Chandler Hull Jeff Segal	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'56.226	29.647
59	88	Jonas Ried Harry Tincknell Don Yount	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'57.338	30.759
60	55	Gustav Birch Jens Reno Moller Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'57.625	31.046
61	98	Ian James Daniel Mancinelli Alex Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	4'02.893	36.314
62	777	Tomonobu Fujii Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM
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