Ferrari’s Fuoco Out Front in FP3

Photo: MPS Agency

Antonio Fuoco led a Ferrari AF Corse 1-2 in the third Free Practice session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in the final session prior to this evening’s Hyperpole.

Fuoco laid down a flying lap of 3:26.579 late in the three-hour session to edge out the sister No. 51 Ferrari 499P of Alessandro Pier Guidi by 0.434 seconds.

Pier Guidi’s car completed only 18 laps after spending more than an hour and a half in the garage with an undisclosed issue.

Toyota Gazoo Racing, which held the top two positions for the majority of the session, settled for third and fourth quickest with best times from Kamui Kobayashi and Brendon Hartley in the pair of Toyota GR010 Hybrids.

The No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 of Antonio Felix da Costa completed the top-five, going quicker than all three of the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport entries.

Felipe Nasr was sixth in the No. 75 Penske Porsche, followed by the No. 311 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Jack Aitken and the two other works Porsches that completed the top-eight.

The No. 6 Porsche returned to action after a cooling issue, while the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 battled a battery gremlin and both the Nos. 2 and 3 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillacs underwent planned engine changes, with a brief electrical issue for the No. 2 car.

LMP2 was led by the No. 28 JOTA Oreca 07 Gibson of Pietro Fittipaldi, who continued his hot streak in the defacto spec prototype class.

Fittipaldi, who was likely on a qualifying simulation run, was 3.147 seconds clear of the competition thanks to a 3:34.071 lap time.

The No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE of Francesco Castellacci, meanwhile, paced GTE-Am with a 3:53.681 time.

While there were no red flags, a number of LMP2 and GTE-Am cars encountered trouble over the course of the session.

It included offs for both Team WRT Orecas, which sustained damage from separate accidents from Ferdinand Habsburg and Rui Andrade, while both Rodrigo Sales and Manuel Maldonado found the gravel in their Nielsen Racing and Panis Racing entries, respectively.

Additionally, the No. 98 NorthWest AMR Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Ian James stopped on track near pit-out with a wishbone failure that required the car to be towed back to the garage.

Hyperpole is up next, which is scheduled for 8 p.m. CEST (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