Hartley, Porsche Top FP3 at COTA

Photo: John Dagys

Porsche continued to lead the way at Circuit of The Americas, with the pair of 919 Hybrids topping the time charts in Saturday’s Free Practice 3 for the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Brendon Hartley reeled off a weekend-best 1:46.435 in the No. 17 Porsche, clearing the LMP1 competition by more than one-second.

With the No. 18 Porsche second quickest, the best of the rest was the No. 8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro in third, followed by the sister No. 7 entry in fourth.

The pair of Toyota TS040 Hybrids completed the top-six overall.

Signatech Alpine was quickest in LMP2, while the No. 92 Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR and No. 98 Aston Martin Vantage V8 led the way in GTE-Pro and GTE-Am, respectively.

The 60-minute session was interrupted by a red flag for debris caused from contact by the No. 26 G-Drive Racing Ligier JS P2 Nissan of Roman Rusinov and the Patrick Dempsey-driven No. 77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche.

Both cars returned to the pits under their own power but sustained damage. The G-Drive entry rejoined but the Dempsey machine remained in the garage.

Qualifying gets underway at 5:45 p.m. local.

RESULTS: Free Practice 3

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