Kubica Leads Ferrari 1-2 in Final Le Mans Practice

Robert Kubica set the fastest time in the fourth and final Free Practice session ahead of the 93rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Polish racer reeled off a 3:26.523 in the No. 83 Ferrari 499P, putting him 0.933 seconds clear of the No. 50 Ferrari driven by Miguel Molina.

Kubica set a series of fast laps during the 60-minute night session, having an initial benchmark lap deleted for track limits before a pair of flyers left him nearly a second ahead of the nearest car in class.

Felipe Drugovich, who led the session before Kubica and Molina posted their times, shuffled down to third in the No. 311 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.

Jenson Button was fourth in the No. 38 Cadillac, followed by the No. 6 Porsche 963 that rounded out the top five in the hands of Laurens Vanthoor.

Vanthoor, like Kubica, also had an earlier chart-topping time deleted for a track limits infringement.

Norman Nato picked up sixth in the No. 12 Cadillac that was put on pole position by co-driver Alex Lynn earlier on Thursday evening, with Antonio Giovinazzi and Julien Andlauer completing the top eight for AF Corse and Porsche Penske Motorsport, respectively.

VDS Panis Racing went quickest in LMP2 courtesy of a 3:38.302 set by Esteban Masson aboard the No. 48 Oreca 07 Gibson.

The Frenchman led a 1-2 for TDS Racing-operated cars, as the No. 29 Oreca driven by Clement Novalak went second quickest and also led LMP2 Pro-Am in the process.

Matthieu Vaxiviere was third for AF Corse as the rest of the top five in the LMP2 ranks fully consisted of Pro-Am runners.

Rene Binder slotted into fourth aboard the No. 11 Proton Competition Oreca, ahead of the No. 34 Inter Europol Competition machine driven by Luca Ghiotto.

Jose Maria Lopez posted a 3:55.057 within the final 15 minutes of the session to top LMGT3 aboard the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3.

Eduardo Barrichello was 1.168 seconds slower in second aboard the No. 10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo with Davide Rigon making it three different brands in the top three aboard the No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.

The session notably saw two stoppages along the Mulsanne Straight, most notably for the No. 63 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Brenton Grove ground to a halt within the first ten minutes with a gearbox problem and could not continue.

This means both he and father Stephen were not able to complete their minimum five night practice laps after the car also missed Wednesday’s night practice following a crash in Free Practice 1.

A stopped No. 23 United Autosports Oreca, driven by Daniel Schneider, caused a Full Course Yellow in the final laps.

With practice at Le Mans now completed, cars will return to the track for a warmup session at 12 p.m. CEST (6 a.m. EST) on Saturday before the race kicks off at 4 p.m. CEST (10 a.m. EST).