24h Le Mans
A three-way fight is about to come to the boil as Alpine, BMW and Cadillac prepare to go toe-to-toe in Hyperpole this evening, after commanding the final daylight Free Practice session at Le Mans. The #36 Alpine, both BMW MTeam WRT machines and both Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA cars ended the session at the sharp end of the order.
The final Free Practice session in daylight – can you believe we're already at that stage of the week? One last chance to see the track at speed before Sunday's warm-up. Sixty-two cars, 62 dreams. Three hours on the clock to complete the learning process at Circuit de la Sarthe as the countdown to the 24 Hours of Le Mans continues.
Setting the first benchmark were the winners of the 2023 Centenary event – the #51 Ferrari 499P in the capable hands of Antonio Giovinazzi. The Prancing Horse has had a quiet week so far, but in Free Practice 3 it reminded the opposition it was still there, posting an early 3:24.598 straight out of the box.
Cadillac has been a major threat all week, with all three of its Michigan machines featuring near the top of the timing screens. The #101 Wayne Taylor Racing entry, driven by Filipe Albuquerque, briefly went quickest before the gold Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA car of Will Stevens surged to the top with a 3:24.058.
Those positions remained unchanged until the final 12 minutes. After a brief red-flag period, a flurry of green sectors lit up for the #38 Cadillac as Earl Bamber joined the fray, putting his golden arrow into second place to make it a Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA one-two and a one-two-three for the all-conquering Cadillac contingent.
BMW would spoil that all-American party in the dying moments of the afternoon spectacle, throwing caution to the wind with both of its M Hybrid V8s. The Bavarian marque charged into second and third, before Belgian ace Dries Vanthoor, at the wheel of the #15 machine, claimed the FP3 honours ahead of the #36 Alpine A424 of Victor Martins and early pace-setter Will Stevens in the Cadillac.
Genesis has been one of the revelations of every session, steadily moving the pace of the GMR-001 Hypercar towards the sharp end of the field day after day. As the newest car on the 2026 grid, the South Korean marque held fourth for much of the three-hour session, with Paul-Loup Chatin in the #19 leading the charge. The brand-new Hypercar would eventually end up fifth on the leaderboard and is an outside shot of a front-row here in France.
Both Genesis cars have made it into this evening's Hyperpole 1 shootout, and it will be fascinating to see just how far they can progress.
Team Principal Cyril Abiteboul has been quoted in the press this week as saying that speed will not be a problem. However, the biggest hurdle facing the GMR-001 Hypercar will be reliability over the full 24 hours, with this session proving particularly important for completing race-run simulations.
In the prototype class, just one thousandth of a second separated the #29 Forestier Racing by Panis car and the #30 Duqueine Team entry after three hours of running. Over a 13.626km lap, it demonstrated just how incredibly close the LMP2 category really is.
During one of the out laps in the opening phase of FP3, the #28 IDEC Sport car took a trip across the gravel, resulting in a return to the garage so the kitty litter could be scooped out of the ORECA before the French team carried out a precautionary check-over.
On the stroke of the first hour, the #44 Proton Competition machine appeared to hit the barriers heavily entering the Porsche Curves, with the rear of the ORECA taking the impact. Yet just seven minutes later, under Slow Zone conditions, the incredible marshals and recovery crews had the Felbermayr-liveried car back on the road.
With 45 minutes remaining, there was a lapse in concentration for Theodor Jensen in the #37 CLX Motorsport car, running wide, kicking up dust and bouncing across the grass on the approach to Tertre Rouge. It was a heart-in-the-mouth moment, but the ORECA eventually made it back onto the circuit much to the relief of the Danish driver.
As FP3 entered its final half-hour, the #222 United Autosports car of Daniel Schneider made contact with the tyre barriers at the Ford Chicane, bringing out a red flag and temporarily halting proceedings. Schneider was unharmed and the car was recovered, but the United mechanics will have some work to do to straighten that ORECA ahead of its next outing.
In the opening 20 minutes, you could barely separate the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari and the #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus. Both set the early pace with identical laps of 3:54.782.
Once José María López climbed aboard the Lexus, the #87 edged ahead, with the #32 Team WRT BMW squeezing into the vacant gap.
However, the Barrichello name came to the fore in the final hour as Eduardo, son of Rubens, hustled his Heart of Racing Aston Martin to the top of the timesheets ahead of the #32 Team WRT BMW and the #87 Lexus.
FP3 Top 5 Fastest Times:
1. BMW M Hybrid V8 #15 BMW M Team WRT – Kevin Magnussen / Raffaele Marciello / Dries Vanthoor – 3:23.302
2. Alpine A424 #36 Alpine Endurance Team – Frédéric Makowiecki / Jules Gounon / Victor Martins – 3:23.725
3. Cadillac V-Series.R #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA – Louis Delétraz / Will Stevens / Norman Nato – 3:23.816
4. BMW M Hybrid V8 #20 BMW M Team WRT – Robin Frijns / Rene Rast / Sheldon van der Linde – 3:24.162
5. Genesis GMR-001-Hypercar #17 Genesis Magma Racing – André Lotterer / Luis Felipe Derani / Mathys Jaubert – 3:24.195
Top Times in LMP2 and LMGT3
>>> Free Practice 3 Results <<<
