Ferrari’s Fuoco Paces Third Practice at Barcelona

Ferrari driver Antonio Fuoco set the fastest time in final practice ahead of qualifying for this weekend’s Barcelona FIA World Endurance Championship round.

Fuoco reeled off a best lap of 1:31.026 at the beginning of the hour-long standalone Hypercar session, held shortly after LMGT3 qualifying, at the wheel of the No. 50 Ferrari 499P, easily beating the best time set on Friday by Harry Tincknell.

The Italian driver topped the session by a scant 0.015 seconds from Genesis Magma Racing’s Mathieu Jaminet, as the Korean marque’s GMR-001 continued to show good performance around a venue where it has previously tested twice.

Jack Aitken was third-fastest, 0.251 seconds off the pace, in the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA entry, ahead of home hero Alex Riberas in the No. 009 Aston Martin Valkyrie and the No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R of Will Stevens.

Alpine showed improved form compared to Friday as Charles Milesi went sixth-fastest in the stronger of the two A424s, the No. 35 car, and Victor Martins was eighth in the sister No. 36 car, split by Robert Kubica’s No. 83 satellite AF Corse Ferrari.

BMW’s top car, the No. 15 M Hybrid V8 (Dries Vanthoor), and the No. 007 Heart of Racing Team-operated Valkyrie (Tincknell) rounded off the top ten.

Toyota’s pair of TR010 Hybrids were only 11th and 12th with Nyck de Vries’s No. 7 leading the No. 8 of Brendon Hartley, followed by Antonio Giovinazzi’s No. 51 Ferrari.

Peugeot struggled for performance as its two 9X8s were only 16th and 17th-fastest in what was a smooth session with no incidents or interruptions.

Qualifying for Hypercar follows at 3:40 p.m. local time (9:40 a.m. EST).