With three hours of summer air temperature of 30 degrees Celsius and track temperature of 45 degrees, the third free practice session was an important part of the race preparation for the 91st edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the 100th anniversary year.
The teams used the training mainly for long runs. The session made this possible with only a few slow zones and no interruptions. In contrast to the first free practice, longer long runs without neutralization were possible without any problems.
Unsurprisingly, Toyota dominated the long runs. Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley in particular impressed with stints that rarely exceeded the 3:30 mark. Double stints were also practiced, in which the Toyota GR010 Hybrids sometimes managed to go below the 3:30 mark.
For a long time, Toyota led the time tableau with 3:27 times, but in the last few minutes the Ferrari 499P undertook a hyperpole simulation. Antonio Fuoco in the #50 (Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen) set a time of 3:26.579 minutes, which remained the best time of the session.
The time was slower than Wednesday’s qualifying best as he made a blunder in the Ford chicane. Still, he was quicker than Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 (Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi), who was 0.434 seconds slower.
In the long run, Ferrari was sometimes on par with Toyota, but had significantly larger deviations. The big question mark with the 499P remains tire wear. Again and again the times fell into the 3:34 range, while Toyota drove more consistently.
Behind the two Toyotas, the #38 Jota Porsche (Felix da Costa/Stevens/Ye) lined up thanks to a strong lap by Antonio Felix da Costa. The works Porsches ended up almost as one behind, only interrupted by the best Cadillac from Action Express Racing.
Surprisingly many hypercar problems
Despite the double best time, not everything went smoothly at Ferrari. The #51 had to be completely disassembled during the session and lost around two hours before it could even move out.
It was by far not the only hypercar with problems: The #6 Porsche (Estre/Lotterer/Vanthoor) also lost a lot of time due to a cooling problem. The two Ganassi-Cadillacs spent more time in the pits than on the track.
The bird in this regard shot down the perennial problem child Peugeot: The Peugeot #93 (di Resta/Jensen/Vergne) was slow after an hour and went back on the track after a lengthy repair.
The sister car #94 (Duval/Menezes/Müller) ran without problems for a long time, but then came into the pits smoking and spent the last half hour of the session there.
The Hendrick Chevrolet #24 (Johnson/Rockenfeller/Button) also had problems for a long time. The NASCAR car only managed five laps, but with a time of 3:52.752 minutes it was again faster than all GTE vehicles.
LMP2 common in gravel
The LMP2 vehicles provided the most slow zones. Ferdinand Habsburg in the WRT-Oreca #31 (Gelael/Habsburg/Frijns) slipped right at the beginning of the session in the Indianapolis corner. A little later, Rui Andrade drove straight ahead in the #41 sister car (Andrade/Kubica/Deletraz) in the same corner.
Manuel Maldonado in the Panis-Oreca #65 (Maldonado/van der Helm/van Uitert) sailed twice into the gravel bed without anything being damaged. The most spectacular takeoff was provided by Rodrigo Sales in the Nielsen-Oreca #14 (Sales/Beche/Hanley), which spun spectacularly in the braking zone, sailed over the curb, took a bollard with it and finally got stuck in the gravel.
The best times in the small classes went to the Jota-Oreca #28 (Heinemeier Hansson/Fittipaldi/Rasmussen), who had already made a strong impression on Wednesday, and to the AF-Corse-Ferrari #54 (Flohr/Castellacci/Rigon) .
On a positive note, the TDS-Oreca #13 (Thomas/Taylor/Rast) who had an accident on Wednesday took part in training with a new chassis. The TF Sport Aston Martin #777 (Hoshino/Stevenson/Fujii) involved in the same accident was half assembled in the pits, but had no engine during the session. Participation in night training is likely.
The Hyperpole starts at 8 p.m., in the evening from 10 p.m. another 60 minutes of preparation time are on the program.