The final Free Practice session in the daylight - can you believe we are at that time in the week already! Rain downpours this morning in the Le Mans area evaporated as quickly as it came, the 62 cars in the early segment of Free Practice 3 helped lay down some of the rubber washed away with the rain that morning. 

Hypercar

2023 centenary event winners, the #51 Ferrari AF Corse outfit set the early benchmark in the first hour - with Antonio Giovinazzi becoming the first driver under the 03:25 mark on his second flying lap, as the track showed signs of coming to life early - only six tenths off the Free Practice 1 best 24 hours earlier. 

In the final 35 minutes the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 with Mathieu Jaminet at the controls showed the track was ready for some quick times ahead of Hyperpole - going almost a second quicker than Giovinazzi’s time with a 03:24.717.

Will Stevens in the #12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac followed suit slotted into second with five minutes left of FP3 before teammate Earl Bamber leapfrogged the #12 with the #38 sister. Cadillac showing last nights qualifying marker was no flash in the pan Fourth would be bestowed to the #51 Ferrari AF Corse team, as the ever present yellow #83 AF Corse Ferrari completed the top five.

Finding the limits…

The first incident came in the first hour. A Slow Zone at the final corner was thrown as Thomas Flohr was hustling the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 over the curbs at the Ford chicane in search of bettering his time, but took too curb at Raccordement - the final corner and dropped the LMGT3 car into the gravel trap. Fast work by the rescue team and marshals got the stricken Ferrari back on the road for the session to continue.  

After briefly crossing into the second hour, Jonas Ried in the #9 Iron Lynx ORECA LMP2 - missed his braking point and locked up heading into Indianapolis corner - heading straight on into the tyre barrier. The incident brought out a Slow Zone in that sector for the rescue mission to begin. Within a matter of minutes, the LMP2 car was grabbed and placed back on all four wheels. Limping the #9 machine back to the pitlane - it was apparent the tracking and steering had been knocked out of alignment.

Celia Martin in the #83 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 got broadside on the exit of the Daytona chicane, carrying too much speed. Bearing down and closing fast was the #37 CLX - Pure Racing LMP2 car, which darted out of the path of the Porsche, but went headfirst into the barriers in the process. Simultaneously, the #183 AF Corse ORECA went off-roading - riding through the gravel trap and safely through the other side at the Porsche Curves. Both incidents warranted a Red Flag to help give the marshals time to sweep up the debris and repair the tyre barriers.

In the final hour, the #93 Peugeot 9X8 was seen crawling back to the pits with a nervous Peugeot TotalEnergies crew looking on. On its return to the pits, the car was fired into the air and spun into the garage and panels quickly pulled off for the mechanics to get to work and solve the problem.

Toyota on the other hand were very industrious this afternoon - with the #8 entry achieving the most amount of laps with 45 in total. That equates to 613km under the belts in one three-hour sitting! 

LMP2

In the prototype class, the #29 TDS Racing ORECA set the pace with Rodrigo Sales at the helm - taking the FP3 crown from the #23 United Autosports version of the ORECA late in the three-hour session. Inter Europol Competition are always competitive in the one-make formula, and they placed their #43 representative in third ahead of the #22 United Autosports car with ‘Spike’ aka the AO by TF LMP2 in fifth.

The #28 IDEC Sport team had a heart-racing moment in the final 12 minutes when one of the wheels sheared off the ORECA and rolled into the gravel trap, throwing a late Slow Zone. Luckily - Job Van Uitert didn’t have far to get the car back for the team to debrief over the three-wheeled wagon.  

LMGT3

United Autosports were in line for a double at one point in the session with representation at the top in both LMP2 and LMGT3. The McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo run by United Autosports, which carries the iconic #59 which was worn by its McLaren F1 ancestor to its 1995 win could only manage sixth at the flag. Taking the honour of top GT was the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin - stealing the top spot in a smash and grab raid on the last lap. The #92 Manthey 1ST Phorm Porsche team, who were on top for so long had to settle for second with Richard Lietz pipping the so far dominant #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus team. Racing Spirit of Leman showed Aston Martins wirth with fourth ahead of the #46 Team WRT BMW.

The #63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG which spent all night in the garage being rebuilt surfaced in FP3 with the team in silver shaking down the front engined monster to begin with before chalking up 30 laps LMGT3 machine. 

Free Practice 3: Top 5 Classification:

1. Porsche 963 #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport – Julien Andlauer / Michael Christensen / Mathieu Jaminet - 3:24.717
2. Cadillac V-Series.R #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA – Earl Bamber / Sébastien Bourdais / Jenson Button - 3:25.533
3. Cadillac V-Series.R #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA – Will Stevens / Norman Nato / Alex Lynn - 3:25.609
4. Ferrari 499P #51 Ferrari-AF Corse – Alessandro Pier Guidi / James Calado / Antonio Giovinazzi - 3:25.705
5. Ferrari 499P #83 AF Corse – Robert Kubica / Yifei Ye / Philip Hanson - 3:26.322

Free Practice 3: Fastest times in the LMP2 and LMGT3 categories:

• Oreca 07-Gibson #29 TDS Racing – Rodrigo Sales / Mathias Beche / Clément Novalak (LMP2 Pro/Am) - 3:36.827

• Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 #27 Heart Of Racing – Ian James / Mattia Drudi / Zacharie Robichon - 3:55.897

Next up - Hyperpole knockout sessions with Hyperpole 1 and Hyperpole 2 starting at 20:00 local time with the Award Ceremony at 22:00 - just as the sun finally begins to set. We end the day once again with some nighttime running. Free Practice 4 will bring the curtain down on proceedings at 23:00 with an hour on the clock for one last dress rehearsal.