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Jamie Klein

Le Mans 24h: Toyota quickest in accident-strewn third practice

In the final on-track running before Hyperpole qualifying, Kamui Kobayashi recorded a best effort of 3m26.796s at the wheel of the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid - around half a second quicker than he managed during first qualifying on Wednesday.

Brendon Hartley backed that up with a 3m27.115s in the sister #8 car to go second-quickest ahead of the two Glickenhaus 007 LMHs.

The American boutique marque's best lap was a 3m27.466s from Olivier Pla in the #708 car, a little under seven tenths off the pace and marginally slower than its first qualifying benchmark, while Ryan Briscoe posted a 3m28.073s in the sister #709 machine.

Propping up the order in the five-car Hypercar class was Alpine's grandfathered A480-Gibson LMP1, despite receiving a power increase in a revised Balance of Performance issued as the three-hour session began.

Matthieu Vaxiviere was 2.4 seconds down on Kobayashi with a 3m29.259s, only a minor improvement on Nicolas Lapierre's effort in the #36 machine in first qualifying.

Toyota's #8 car lost more track time with an electrical glitch that prompted Ryo Hirakawa to briefly stop on-track between Indianapolis and Arnage corners before bringing the stricken machine back for a stint in the garage.

That was prior to a 20-minute red flag period caused by a major crash for the #13 TDS Racing Oreca LMP2 of Philippe Cimadomo at Corvette Curve, the result of slight contact with the #31 WRT car of Sean Gelael.

Topping the times in the LMP2 class were United Autosports' pair of Oreca 07s, which both set their fastest times in the final five minutes of the session.

Filipe Albuquerque was quickest in the class on a 3m20.964s aboard the #22 United entry, going less than a tenth faster than squadmate Alex Lynn in the #23 car.

Robin Frijns, who set his best lap of 3m31.030s immediately after the red flag period, was demoted to third place in the #31 WRT car, ahead of Yifei Ye in the #37 Cool Racing entry and the best of the JOTA machines, the #38 car of Antonio Felix da Costa.

Most of the other major incidents during the session involved LMP2 runners.

Duqueine man Reshad de Gerus suffered an early off at Indianapolis, while following the red flag period Sebastien Page crashed the Graff car at the same part of the track, with both incidents being covered off with slow zones.

Miro Konopka also had an excursion through the gravel at the Dunlop chicane in the ARC Bratislava car following contact with another LMP2 car, although he was able to get going again.

Corvette Racing was again the team to beat in GTE Pro as Nick Tandy set a best time in class of 3m52.307s aboard the American marque's full-time WEC entry, the #64 C8.R.

A little under half a second down in second was the best of the factory Porsche 911 RSR-19s, the #91 machine of Richard Lietz, followed by the #63 Corvette of Antonio Garcia and the #92 Porsche of Michael Christensen.

Ferrari's pair of works 488 GTE Evos occupied fifth and sixth places in class, with Antonio Fuoco giving the Italian marque its best laptime aboard the #52 entry.

Mikkel Pedersen set the pace in GTE Am with a 3m54.386s aboard the #46 Team Project 1 Porsche, beating the TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Henrique Chaves by just over two tenths.

Hyperpole qualifying, involving the top six cars from each class, begins at 8pm local time.

2022 Le Mans 24 Hours - third practice results:

Pos. # Drivers Car Class Time Gap
1 7 GBR Mike Conway
JPN Kamui Kobayashi
ARG Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 3'26.796  
2 8 SUI Sebastien Buemi
NZL Brendon Hartley
JPN Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 3'27.115 0.319
3 708 FRA Olivier Pla
FRA Romain Dumas
BRA Pipo Derani
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 3'27.466 0.670
4 709 AUS Ryan Briscoe
GBR Richard Westbrook
FRA Franck Mailleux
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 3'28.073 1.277
5 36 BRA André Negrão
FRA Nicolas Lapierre
FRA Matthieu Vaxivière
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 3'29.259 2.463
6 22 GBR Philip Hanson
POR Filipe Albuquerque
USA William Owen
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'30.964 4.168
7 23 GBR Alex Lynn
GBR Oliver Jarvis
USA Josh Pierson
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'31.025 4.229
8 31 INA Sean Gelael
HOL Robin Frijns
GER René Rast
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'31.030 4.234
9 37  Ye Yifei
USA Ricky Taylor
GER Niklas Kruetten
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.057 5.261
10 38 MEX Roberto Gonzalez
POR Antonio Felix da Costa
GBR Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.151 5.355
11 41 POR Rui Andrade
AUT Ferdinand Habsburg
FRA Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.169 5.373
12 83 FRA François Perrodo
DEN Nicklas Nielsen
ITA Alessio Rovera
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.349 5.553
13 13 FRA Philippe Cimadomo
SUI Mathias Beche
HOL Tijmen van der Helm
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.384 5.588
14 48 FRA Paul Lafargue
FRA Paul Loup Chatin
FRA Patrick Pilet
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.055 6.259
15 5 USA Dane Cameron
FRA Emmanuel Collard
BRA Felipe Nasr
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.247 6.451
16 28 DEN Oliver Rasmussen
GBR Edward Jones
Jonathan Aberdein
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.249 6.453
17 43 DEN David Heinemeier Hansson
SUI Fabio Scherer
BRA Pietro Fittipaldi
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.253 6.457
18 9 POL Robert Kubica
SUI Louis Deletraz
ITA Lorenzo Colombo
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.369 6.573
19 24 USA Rodrigo Sales
USA Matt Bell
GBR Ben Hanley
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.737 6.941
20 32 SUI Rolf Ineichen
ITA Mirko Bortolotti
BEL Dries Vanthoor
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.794 6.998
21 3 GER Laurents Hörr
BEL Jean Glorieux
FRA Alexandre Cougnaud
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.085 7.289
22 1 FRA Lilou Wadoux
FRA Sébastien Ogier
FRA Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.395 7.599
23 35 FRA Jean-Baptiste Lahaye
FRA Matthieu Lahaye
FRA François Heriau
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.486 7.690
24 10 SUI Nico Müller
IRL Ryan Cullen
FRA Sebastien Bourdais
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.511 7.715
25 45 USA Steven Thomas
AUS James Allen
AUT Rene Binder
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.543 7.747
26 30 GBR Richard Bradley
MEX Guillermo Rojas
FRA Reshad de Gerus
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.788 7.992
27 39 FRA Eric Trouillet
Sebastien Page
FRA David Droux
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.071 8.275
28 34 POL Jakub Smiechowski
GBR Alex Brundle
MEX Esteban Gutierrez
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.285 9.489
29 65 FRA Julien Canal
FRA Nico Jamin
HOL Job Van Uitert
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.451 9.655
30 47 GER Sophia Floersch
USA John Falb
GBR Jack Aitken
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.841 10.045
31 27 FRA Cresp Christophe
Michael Jensen
FRA Steven Palette
Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 3'39.056 12.260
32 44 SVK Miroslav Konopka
HOL Bent Viscaal
FRA Tristan Vautier
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'47.210 20.414
33 64 USA Tommy Milner
GBR Nick Tandy
GBR Alexander Sims
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 3'52.307 25.511
34 91 ITA Gianmaria Bruni
AUT Richard Lietz
FRA Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 3'52.787 25.991
35 63 ESP Antonio Garcia
USA Jordan Taylor
HOL Nicky Catsburg
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 3'52.824 26.028
36 92 DEN Michael Christensen
FRA Kevin Estre
BEL Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 3'52.898 26.102
37 52 ESP Miguel Molina
ITA Antonio Fuoco
ITA Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'53.368 26.572
38 51 ITA Alessandro Pier Guidi
GBR James Calado
BRA Daniel Serra
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'54.249 27.453
39 46 ITA Matteo Cairoli
DEN Mikkel Pedersen
SUI Nicolas Leutwiler
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'54.386 27.590
40 33 USA Ben Keating
POR Henrique Chaves
DEN Marco Sørensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'54.618 27.822
41 99 INA Andrew Haryanto
BEL Alessio Picariello
EST Martin Rump
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'54.906 28.110
42 98 CAN Paul Dalla Lana
GBR David Pittard
DEN Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'54.937 28.141
43 77 GER Christian Ried
FRA Sebastian Priaulx
GBR Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'55.164 28.368
44 80 ITA Matteo Cressoni
ITA Giancarlo Fisichella
USA Richard Heistand
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.269 28.473
45 21 USA Simon Mann
 Christoph Ulrich
FIN Toni Vilander
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.286 28.490
46 88 Fred Poordad
USA Max Root
BEL Jan Heylen
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'55.315 28.519
47 61 MON Louis Prette
USA Conrad Grunewald
FRA Vincent Abril
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.397 28.601
48 71 FRA Franck Dezoteux
FRA Pierre Ragues
FRA Gabriel Aubry
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.531 28.735
49 86 GBR Michael Wainwright
ITA Riccardo Pera
GBR Ben Barker
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'55.575 28.779
50 55 GBR Duncan Cameron
ITA Matt Griffin
David Perel
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.582 28.786
51 85 SUI Rahel Frey
DEN Michelle Gatting
BEL Sarah Bovy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.629 28.833
52 54 SUI Thomas Flohr
ITA Francesco Castellacci
NZL Nick Cassidy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.658 28.862
53 777 JPN Satoshi Hoshino
JPN Tomonobu Fujii
GBR Charles Fagg
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'55.659 28.863
54 60 ITA Claudio Schiavoni
ITA Alessandro Balzan
ITA Raffaele Giammaria
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.764 28.968
55 59  Alexander West
FRA Côme Ledogar
FRA Marvin Klein
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.882 29.086
56 93 IRL Michael Fassbender
AUS Matthew Campbell
CAN Zacharie Robichon
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'56.039 29.243
57 79 USA Cooper MacNeil
FRA Julien Andlauer
Thomas Merrill
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'56.201 29.405
58 57 JPN Takeshi Kimura
DEN Frederik Schandorff
DEN Mikkel Jensen
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'56.257 29.461
59 56 USA Brendan Iribe
GBR Ollie Millroy
GBR Ben Barnicoat
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'56.792 29.996
60 75 GER Pierre Ehret
GER Christian Hook
ARG Nicolas Varrone
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'56.893 30.097
61 66 HOL Renger van der Zande
USA Mark Kvamme
USA Jason Hart
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'57.696 30.900
62 74 BRA Felipe Fraga
GBR Sam Bird
NZL Shane van Gisbergen
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 4'27.690 1'00.894
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