Fuoco Tops Le Mans Free Practice 3

Photo: MPS Agency

Antonio Fuoco laid down a final-lap flyer to go quickest in the third Free Practice session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans heading into this evening’s Hyperpole.

The Italian in last year’s pole-sitting No. 50 Ferrari 499P reeled off a chart-topping 3:27.283 to edge out the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 of Kevin Estre by 0.108 seconds.

Dries Vanthoor ended the session third in the No. 15 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, while Sebastien Bourdais also made a late flyer to fourth in his No. 3 Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R, while the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi completed the top-five.

Alex Lynn’s 3:28.245 lap time early in the running was good enough for sixth in the No. 2 Cadillac, ahead of the No. 311 Action Express Racing Cadillac in seventh and the No. 7 Toyota in eighth.

The No. 4 Penske Porsche and No. 36 Alpine A424 completed the top-ten, meanwhile.

Hertz Team JOTA’s No. 12 Porsche did not return to action in the session as the British team is building up a car around a spare tub. It is not expected to be completed until some stage on Friday.

LMP2 was led by the Pro-Am subclass-entered No. 65 Panis Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Mathias Beche, thanks to a 3:37.217 lap by the Swiss driver, despite the car having two incidents.

Beche’s time was 0.125 seconds quicker than the No. 47 Cool Racing Oreca entry in second.

The No. 14 AO by TF Oreca was third in class, while the No. 28 IDEC Sport Oreca was the quickest of the at-large LMP2 entries.

United Autosports’ No. 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo led the way in LMGT3, prior to an off by James Cottingham at Tertre Rouge that resulted in the session’s only red flag.

The car was brought back to the pit lane with a tarp over it, with damage sustained.

Several other cars found trouble during the session, including two offs for the LMP2 class-leading Panis machine, first with Rodrigo Sales at the final corner before Scott Huffaker went straight into the gravel at Indianapolis.

Additionally, George Kurtz had a run-in with the gravel in his No. 45 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca, also at Indianapolis.

A Full Course Yellow, meanwhile, was deployed for debris in the closing stages, which was met by light showers.

Hyperpole is set to get underway at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. EDT).

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John