Lynn Puts Cadillac On Top in Third Practice

Cadillac Racing ended Porsche’s stranglehold on the top of the timesheets in third practice for this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship in Qatar, as Alex Lynn paced Saturday morning’s final session before qualifying.

For the first time since the beginning of the Prologue test, a manufacturer other than Porsche recorded the top time at the Lusail International Circuit, courtesy of Lynn’s best effort of 1:40.667 aboard the Chip Ganassi Racing-run No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R.

That was 0.180 seconds faster than the best of the Porsche Penske Motorsport-run 963s, the No. 6 car in which Matt Campbell enjoyed a short spell atop the times in the early stages of the one-hour session.

Two more Porsches filled out the top four, with Callum Ilott putting the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA entry third, 0.454 seconds off the pace, followed by the No. 6 factory car of Laurens Vanthoor.

Peugeot was the best of the LMH manufacturers with the best of its wingless 9X8s, the No. 94, setting the fifth-fastest time in the hands of Stoffel Vandoorne.

The customer No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P was the Italian marque’s top representative in sixth with Yifei Ye at the wheel, narrowly ahead of the best of the works Ferraris, the No. 51 car of Antonio Giovinazzi, and the No. 93 Peugeot of Jean-Eric Vergne.

Toyota ended the final session before qualifying in ninth place with the No. 7 GR010 Hybrid in which newcomer Nyck de Vries set the best time, while Antonio Fuoco was 10th in the No. 50 Ferrari.

Alpine was best of the newcomers with its two A424s ending up 12th and 13th, behind the Proton Competition Porsche, while BMW’s pair of M Hybrid V8s were 14th and 15th ahead of the solo Lamborghini SC63.

The second of the Toyotas languished down in 17th, some two seconds off the pace and ahead of only the No. 38 JOTA Porsche and the Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 Competizione.

In LMGT3, the fastest time of 1:54.964 was set by Alex Riberas in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, which was enough to eclipse Davide Rigon’s best effort aboard the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 by a scant 0.053 seconds.

Simon Mann made a late improvement to third in the sister No. 55 Ferrari, jumping ahead of the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Franck Perera and the No. 777 D’station Racing Aston of Marco Sorensen.

The session was red-flagged after around 15 minutes when James Cottingham got his No. 59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo stuck in the gravel exiting Turn 6.

Qualifying for the Qatar 1812km is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m local time (8 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice 3