Peugeot Sets FP3 Pace as Vergne Beats Fuoco

Peugeot set the pace in an FIA World Endurance Championship practice session for the first time this season as Jean-Eric Vergne beat Ferrari’s Antonio Fuoco by 0.045 seconds.

The No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 went quickest overall courtesy of a 1:35.878 lap time from Vergne, who traded the top spot with Fuoco in the early stages of the 60-minute session.

Fuoco was the first driver to dip under the 1m 36s threshold in Free Practice 3 but Vergne responded by narrowly beating the No. 50 Ferrari 499P after 10 minutes.

It marked the first time since last season’s Bahrain finale that Peugeot had topped a Free Practice session in the WEC, at the site of its Hypercar debut 12 months ago.

Gustavo Menezes anchored the French manufacturer’s strong Saturday morning showing by finishing third in the teammate No. 94 car with a time of 1:36.105.

Antonio Giovanzzi, driving the No. 51 Ferrari, briefly eclipsed Menezes at one stage but the Italian had the lap time deleted due to a track limits breach at the exit of Ascari.

Giovinazzi swiftly produced a clean lap to go fourth, while Alex Lynn made an improvement just after halfway to put LMDh manufacturer Cadillac in fifth, just over half a second off the pace.

Porsche 963 customers Proton Competition and Hertz Team JOTA were fifth and sixth, with the latter briefly stopping at the end of the pit lane at the start of the session due to low fuel pressure readings.

Toyota Gazoo Racing only managed eighth and 11th after claiming first and third during FP2 on Friday. The best of the factory Penske Porsches ended up in ninth.

Pietro Fittipaldi set the fastest lap in the LMP2 class, reeling off a time of 1:39.621 in the JOTA Oreca 07 Gibson.

Fittipaldi, who hit the top of the timesheets early and remained there throughout, beat Vector Sport driver Gabriel Aubry by two-tenths of a second.

There were problems for the No. 31 WRT from Team WRT, which spent time in the garage due to an apparent engine-related issue that caused a lack of power.

The lead changed multiple times in GTE-Am and it was Matteo Cairoli who ended up quickest for Porsche outfit Team Project 1-AO.

Having been the early pace-setter, the Italian produced a 1:46.762 with 13 minutes to go, improving on previous benchmarks set by Lilou Wadoux and Mikkel Pedersen.

FP3 was the first session this weekend to have no Full Course Yellow interruptions.

Qualifying for the 6 Hours of Monza gets underway at 2:40 p.m. CEST (8:40 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Free Practice 3