Glickenhaus Beats Alpine to FP3 Top Spot

Olivier Pla went quickest in the third and final Free Practice session for the 1000 Miles of Sebring as Glickenhaus Racing beat Alpine Elf Team to the top spot in the leaderboard.

Glickenhaus driver Pla posted a time of 1:49.261 which ended up as the fastest lap from the three 60-minute practice sessions held across Wednesday and Thursday.

Alpine driver Nicolas Lapierre initially set the pace on the 10-minute mark with a 1:49.664, however Pla managed to undercut his fellow Frenchman by four-tenths shortly before the halfway point.

Filipe Albuquerque ranked third overall in the LMP2-leading Oreca 07 Gibson from United Autosports.

The Portuguese driver produced a 1:49.745 to put United’s No. 22 entry ahead of the No. 38 JOTA Oreca that achieved a 1:49.980 in the hands of Antonio Felix da Costa.

While its non-hybrid Hypercar competitors took first and second, Toyota Gazoo Racing ended FP3 in fifth and eighth overall with its pair of GR010 Hybrids.

Brendon Hartley, who held the fastest lap early on before Lapierre broke through, took fifth on a 1:50.169 in the No. 8 Toyota.

The LMP2 Orecas from United Autosports’ No. 23 crew and AF Corse split the two Toyotas in the overall classification.

There were two incidents involving LMP2 cars, with one bringing out a local yellow flag and the other resulting in a Full Course Yellow deep into the session.

The local yellow was caused by Inter Europol Competition driver Fabio Scherer spinning and recovering at Turn 10, while Ed Jones rotated the No. 38 JOTA Oreca exiting Turn 3. A tire detached from the JOTA car, leaving Jones unable to get going without assistance.

Porsche finished first and second in the GTE-Pro class with its factory 911 RSR-19s, replicating the result from the opening Free Practice session.

Michael Christensen reeled off a time of 1:57.448 to lead FP3 from No. 91 Porsche driver Gianmaria Bruni, who came through a quarter of a second behind his teammate.

Nick Tandy took third for Corvette Racing ahead of the two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos.

Matteo Cairoli paced GTE-Am for Porsche customer squad Team Project 1 with a 1:58.776 marker that beat the best of the works Ferraris driven by James Calado.

Sebastian Priaulx took second in class for fellow Porsche team Dempsey-Proton Racing, ahead of NorthWest AMR Aston Martin factory driver Nicki Thiim in third.

Next up on the track for the 36-car WEC field is qualifying at 7 p.m. ET. There will be two 10-minute sessions, one for GTE cars and one for Hypercar and LMP2.

RESULTS: Free Practice 3