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WEC Qatar: Cadillac ends Porsche's monopoly in final practice

Porsche had dominated the Prologue as well as the first two practice sessions for the 10-hour fixture at Qatar with its 963 LMDh, but Cadillac surged ahead in relatively hotter conditions on Friday morning.

Alex Lynn set a time of 1m40.667s in the Chip Ganassi-entered Cadillac V-Series.R at the beginning of 60-minute FP3, overhauling the #5 Porsche Penske car of Matt Campbell by 0.180s.

Lynn’s time was almost seven tenths slower than the fastest lap of the week, set by Kevin Estre in the #6 factory Porsche in much cooler temperatures on Thursday evening, which means the German marque remains on the front foot heading into qualifying later on Friday.

Third place in FP3 went to the customer Jota squad, with Callum Ilott setting a time of 1m41.121s in the #12 963 to edge out the second factory Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor by 0.035s.

Peugeot again looked rapid over a single lap at the Losail International Circuit, as new recruit Stoffel Vandoorne ended up a solid fifth in the best of the two works 9X8, just two hundredths of a second behind Vanthoor’s Porsche.

Ferrari was the fourth-quickest manufacturer in FP3, but it was the AF Corse squad that led the Italian marque’s charge in final practice.

Yifei Ye got down to a 1m41.212s in the #83 Ferrari 499P to finish sixth, just ahead of the lead works car of Alessandro Pier Guidi in seventh.

#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Sebastien Bourdais (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Jean-Eric Vergne was next up in the #93 Peugeot, while Toyota could only manage the ninth-quickest time with Nyck de Vries at the wheel of the #7 GR010 Hybrid. De Vries’ best lap of 1m41.535s put the Japanese manufacturer almost nine tenths off the top spot, as it continued to struggle for both single-lap and long-run pace at Losail.

The top 10 was rounded out by Antonio Fuoco in the second of the two factory cars, the #50 499P.

Alpine was the highest-placed new entrant in Hypercar, with its two ORECA-based LMDh cars ending up 12th and 13th behind the Proton Porsche of Julien Andlauer

Nicolas Lapierre was the fastest of the Alpine drivers, but even his quickest lap was 1.5s down on Lynn’s chart-topping time in the Cadillac.

The two BMW M Hybrid V8s were classified 14th and 15h, while the sole Iron Lynx-run factory Lamborghini was 16th in the 19-car Hypercar field.

The second of the two Toyotas languished in 17th place, with Sebastien Buemi finishing two seconds off the pace in the #8 entry that won last year’s title.

Aston on top in LMGT3

#27 Heart Of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3: Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, Alex Riberas (Photo by: Shameem Fahath)

Aston Martin surged to the lead of the LMGT3 class late into the 60-minute FP3, with Alex Riberas going quickest in the #27 Heart of Racing-entered Vantage GT3.

Riberas’ last-gasp effort of 1m54.964s helped him dislodge the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 G3 that had held the top spot from the beginning of the session following an early qualifying sim from factory driver Davide Rigon.

Simon Mann in the sister #53 Ferrari finished third in class, a quarter of a second off Riberas’ best time.

Frank Perera was fourth in the #55 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3, while Marco Sorensen made it two cars from Aston Martin in the top five with a time of 1m55.346s in the D’station-run #777 Vantage.

FP3 was interrupted by a brief red flag after 15 minutes of running when James Cottingham beached his #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 at Turn 5.

Last year’s British GT championship runner-up was eventually able to get going again, allowing the session to be resumed.

WEC Qatar - FP3 results

   
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4
   
   
1
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2
   
Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR
2 New Zealand E. Bamber United Kingdom A. Lynn France S. Bourdais Cadillac V-Series.R 24

1'40.667

  192.396
2
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
5 Australia M. Campbell Denmark M. Christensen France F. Makowiecki Porsche 963 30

+0.180

1'40.847

0.180 192.053
3
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
12 United Kingdom W. Stevens United Kingdom C. Ilott France N. Nato Porsche 963 29

+0.454

1'41.121

0.274 191.532
4
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
6 France K. Estre Germany A. Lotterer Belgium L. Vanthoor Porsche 963 29

+0.489

1'41.156

0.035 191.466
5
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
94 United Kingdom P. di Resta France L. Duval Belgium S. Vandoorne Peugeot 9X8 27

+0.509

1'41.176

0.020 191.428
6
AF Corse HYPERCAR
83 Poland R. Kubica Israel R. Shwartzman China Y. Yifei Ferrari 499P 29

+0.545

1'41.212

0.036 191.360
7
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
51 Italy A. Pier Guidi United Kingdom J. Calado Italy A. Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P 30

+0.659

1'41.326

0.114 191.145
8
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
93 Denmark M. Jensen Switzerland N. Müller France J. Vergne Peugeot 9X8 26

+0.715

1'41.382

0.056 191.039
9
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
7 United Kingdom M. Conway Japan K. Kobayashi Netherlands N. de Vries Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 29

+0.868

1'41.535

0.153 190.751
10
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
50 Italy A. Fuoco Spain M. Molina Denmark N. Nielsen Ferrari 499P 27

+1.219

1'41.886

0.351 190.094
11
Proton Competition HYPERCAR
99 United Kingdom H. Tincknell Switzerland N. Jani France J. Andlauer Porsche 963 28

+1.319

1'41.986

0.100 189.908
12
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
36 France N. Lapierre Germany M. Schumacher France M. Vaxiviere Alpine A424 28

+1.544

1'42.211

0.225 189.490
13
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
35 France P. Chatin Austria F. Habsburg France C. Milesi Alpine A424 28

+1.801

1'42.468

0.257 189.015
14
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
15 Belgium D. Vanthoor Italy R. Marciello Germany M. Wittmann BMW M Hybrid V8 29

+1.956

1'42.623

0.155 188.729
15
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
20 South Africa S. Van Der Linde Netherlands R. Frijns Germany R. Rast BMW M Hybrid V8 28

+1.974

1'42.641

0.018 188.696
16
Lamborghini Iron Lynx HYPERCAR
63 Italy M. Bortolotti Switzerland E. Mortara Russian Federation D. Kvyat Lamborghini SC63 15

+1.986

1'42.653

0.012 188.674
17
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
8 Switzerland S. Buemi New Zealand B. Hartley Japan R. Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 30

+2.024

1'42.691

0.038 188.604
18
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
38 United Kingdom J. Button United Kingdom P. Hanson Denmark O. Rasmussen Porsche 963 25

+2.173

1'42.840

0.149 188.331
19
Isotta Fraschini HYPERCAR
11 Canada A. Serravalle
C. Bennett
France J. Vernay
Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C 27

+3.870

1'44.537

1.697 185.274
20
Heart of Racing Team LMGT3
27 United Kingdom I. James Italy D. Mancinelli Spain A. Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 27

+14.297

1'54.964

10.427 168.470
21
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
54 Switzerland T. Flohr Italy F. Castellacci Italy D. Rigon Ferrari 296 GT3 25

+14.350

1'55.017

0.053 168.392
22
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
55 France F. Heriau France S. Mann Italy A. Rovera Ferrari 296 GT3 23

+14.537

1'55.204

0.187 168.119
23
IRON LYNX LMGT3
60 Italy C. Schiavoni Italy M. Cressoni
F. Perera
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 25

+14.593

1'55.260

0.056 168.037
24
D'Station Racing LMGT3
777 France C. Mateu
E. Bastard
Denmark M. Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 26

+14.679

1'55.346

0.086 167.912
25
TF Sport LMGT3
81 Belgium T. Van Rompuy Portugal R. Andrade Ireland C. Eastwood Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 26

+14.681

1'55.348

0.002 167.909
26
United Autosports LMGT3
95 United Kingdom J. Caygill Chile N. Pino Japan M. Sato McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 26

+14.700

1'55.367

0.019 167.881
27
United Autosports LMGT3
59 J. Cottingham N. Costa Switzerland G. Saucy McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 22

+14.997

1'55.664

0.297 167.450
28
TEAM WRT LMGT3
46 United Kingdom A. Al Harthy Italy V. Rossi Belgium M. Martin BMW M4 GT3 26

+15.171

1'55.838

0.174 167.199
29
TF Sport LMGT3
82 Japan H. Koizumi
S. Baud
Spain D. Juncadella
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 24

+15.272

1'55.939

0.101 167.053
30
IRON DAMES LMGT3
85 Belgium S. Bovy France D. Pin Denmark M. Gatting Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 26

+15.318

1'55.985

0.046 166.987
31
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
78
A. Robin
Russian Federation T. Boguslavskiy South Africa K. van der Linde
Lexus RC F GT3 22

+15.417

1'56.084

0.099 166.844
32
Manthey PureRxcing LMGT3
92
A. Malykhin
J. Sturm
Austria K. Bachler
Porsche 911 GT3 R 19

+15.497

1'56.164

0.080 166.729
33
Manthey EMA LMGT3
91
Y. Shahin
M. Schuring
Austria R. Lietz
Porsche 911 GT3 R 23

+15.654

1'56.321

0.157 166.504
34
Proton Competition LMGT3
88 Italy G. Roda
M. Pedersen
Norway D. Olsen
Ford Mustang GT3 24

+15.871

1'56.538

0.217 166.194
35
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
87 Japan T. Kimura
E. Masson
Argentina J. Lopez
Lexus RC F GT3 25

+16.094

1'56.761

0.223 165.877
36
TEAM WRT LMGT3
31
D. Leung
Indonesia S. Gelael Brazil A. Farfus
BMW M4 GT3 24

+16.167

1'56.834

0.073 165.773
37
Proton Competition LMGT3
77 United States R. Hardwick Canada Z. Robichon United Kingdom B. Barker Ford Mustang GT3 1

 

   
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