Tincknell’s Aston Continues to Set the Pace in Final Practice

The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie squad continued to set the pace in final practice for Sunday’s Lone Star Le Mans FIA World Endurance Championship contest.

Harry Tincknell clocked a 1:52.174 aboard the No. 007 Aston to post the fastest lap of the weekend so far, but he was just four thousandths of a second quicker than Mathieu Jaminet aboard the No. 19 Genesis GMR-001.

Third fastest was the best of the JOTA Cadillac V-Series.Rs with Jack Aitken posting a 1:52.435 aboard the No. 38 machine, while the pick of the Ferrari 499Ps was fourth fastest thanks to Antonio Giovinazzi’s 1:52.639 in the No. 51 car.

Fifth fastest was the second Aston of Marco Sorensen while the top-six was rounded out by the sister Cadillac of Norman Nato.

Seventh place went to the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari, which survived a brush with the No. 34 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Peter Dempsey at Turn 1, while the No. 50 Ferrari also suffered a hit from LMGT3 machinery, this time from Ben Tuck’s Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO.

Eighth quickest was the best of the Toyotas, the No. 7 TR010 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi, while the top-ten was rounded out by Malthe Jakobsen’s No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 and the No. 50 Ferrari.

Neither Alpine A424 nor the WRT BMW M Hybrid V8s featured inside the top-ten with the best Alpine 12th and the pick of the BMWs only 15th.

Heart of Racing did not repeat its practice clean sweep from FP2 as it was instead the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Simon Mann that set the benchmark in LMGT3.

Mann clocked a 2:05.731 to end up a tenth faster than the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Maxime Martin, but the Ferrari’s lap was still fractionally slower than Zacharie Robichon managed on Friday.

Third fastest was Tuck’s Mustang on a 2:05.963 while the best of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evos was fourth after a 2:05.999 from Ian James in the No. 27 machine.

Tom Fleming’s No. 10 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo then ensured there were five different brands represented in the first five places.

There were no major interruptions during the hour-long session.

Attention now turns to qualifying with the first session for LMGT3 machinery due to begin at 3 p.m. CST.

RESULTS: Free Practice 3