Rast’s #77 lapped the 3.74-mile 17-turn track in 1min48.233 on his ninth tour to claim top spot 0.457sec ahead of Tincknell, who in turn was 0.11sec faster than the quickest Cadillac, the #31 Action Express machine of Felipe Nasr.

Olivier Pla was fourth for ESM Nissan, with Romain Dumas claiming fifth for CORE autosport’s Oreca and Filipe Albuquerque sixth in the second AXR Caddy. Those six entries were covered by one second.

Dane Cameron ‘s #6 Penske-Acura was seventh ahead of Johannes van Overbeek in the second ESM car, while Tristan Vautier and Jordan Taylor completed the Top 10 in the Cadillacs of Spirit of Daytona and Wayne Taylor Racing respectively.

Dirk Muller and Richard Westbrook were first and fourth for the Ganassi-run Ford GTs, while their co-drivers Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon were able to join them in the #67 and #66 cars after flying in from Firestone testing at Texas Motor Speedway where strong winds had curtailed track time.

In between the Fords on the timing screens were Alexander Sims in the #25 BMW M8 and Laurens Vanthoor in the #912 Porsche 911 RSR.

Markus Palttala put the Turner Motorsport BMW M6 at the head of the GT Daytona ranking, ahead of Daniel Serra’s Spirit of Race Ferrari 488, and the Montaplast by Land Audi R8. 

Third practice results:

Pos.	No.	Drivers	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	77	Oliver Jarvis   René Rast   Tristan Nunez	P	Mazda DPi	1'48.233
2	55	Harry Tincknell   Spencer Pigot   Jonathan Bomarito	P	Mazda DPi	1'48.690	0.457
3	31	Mike Conway   Eric Curran   Felipe Nasr	P	Cadillac DPi	1'48.799	0.566
4	2	Scott Sharp   Ryan Dalziel   Olivier Pla	P	Nissan DPi	1'48.836	0.603
5	54	Romain Dumas   Jon Bennett   Colin Braun	P	ORECA LMP2	1'49.083	0.850
6	5	Christian Fittipaldi   Filipe Albuquerque   Joao Barbosa	P	Cadillac DPi	1'49.155	0.922
7	6	Juan Pablo Montoya   Simon Pagenaud   Dane Cameron	P	Acura DPi	1'49.302	1.069
8	22	Pipo Derani   Johannes van Overbeek   Nicolas Lapierre	P	Nissan DPi	1'49.404	1.171
9	90	Matt McMurry   Tristan Vautier    Eddie Cheever III	P	Cadillac DPi	1'49.938	1.705
10	10	Jordan Taylor   Ryan Hunter-Reay   Renger van der Zande	P	Cadillac DPi	1'49.999	1.766
11	52	Gustavo Yacaman   Roberto Gonzalez   Sebastian Saavedra	P	Ligier LMP2	1'50.004	1.771
12	7	Helio Castroneves   Graham Rahal   Ricky Taylor	P	Acura DPi	1'50.111	1.878
13	32	Paul di Resta   Alex Brundle   Phil Hanson	P	Ligier LMP2	1'50.713	2.480
14	99	Mikhail Goikhberg   Chris Miller   Stephen Simpson	P	ORECA LMP2	1'51.135	2.902
15	38	James French    Kyle Masson   Patricio O'Ward	P	ORECA LMP2	1'51.336	3.103
16	85	Simon Trummer   Nelson Panciatici   Robert Alon	P	ORECA LMP2	1'51.548	3.315
17	66	Sébastien Bourdais   Joey Hand   Dirk Müller	GTLM	Ford GT	1'57.371	9.138
18	25	Bill Auberlen   Connor de Phillippi   Alexander Sims	GTLM	BMW M8 GTLM	1'57.654	9.421
19	912	Gianmaria Bruni   Earl Bamber   Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'57.843	9.610
20	67	Ryan Briscoe   Scott Dixon   Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	1'58.034	9.801
21	62	James Calado   Toni Vilander   Alessandro Pier Guidi	GTLM	Ferrari 488 GTE	1'58.108	9.875
22	24	John Edwards   Jesse Krohn   Nick Catsburg	GTLM	BMW M8 GTLM	1'58.563	10.330
23	3	Jan Magnussen   Antonio Garcia   Mike Rockenfeller	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'58.660	10.427
24	4	Marcel Fassler   Oliver Gavin   Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'58.748	10.515
25	911	Nick Tandy   Patrick Pilet   Frédéric Makowiecki	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'58.762	10.529
26	96	Don Yount   Markus Palttala   Dillon Machavern	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	2'00.970	12.737
27	51	Pedro Lamy   Paul Dalla Lana   Mathias Lauda   Daniel Serra	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	2'01.052	12.819
28	29	Alessio Picariello   Christopher Mies   Sheldon Van Der Linde	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	2'01.065	12.832
29	44	Andy Lally   Andrew Davis   John Potter	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	2'01.102	12.869
30	58	Patrick Long   Christina Nielsen   Robert Renauer   Mathieu Jaminet	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	2'01.159	12.926
31	15	David Heinemeier Hansson   Jack Hawksworth   Sean Rayhall	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	2'01.202	12.969
32	33	Jeroen Bleekemolen   Ben Keating   Luca Stolz	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	2'01.250	13.017
33	14	Kyle Marcelli   Dominik Baumann   Philipp Frommenwiler	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	2'01.408	13.175
34	63	Cooper MacNeil   Gunnar Jeannette   Alessandro Balzan	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	2'01.439	13.206
35	64	Townsend Bell   Frankie Montecalvo   Bill Sweedler	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	2'01.567	13.334
36	86	Alvaro Parente   Katherine Legge   Trent Hindman	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	2'01.582	13.349
37	75	Kenny Habul   Thomas Jäger   Mikael Grenier	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	2'01.620	13.387
38	71	Kenton Koch    Loris Spinelli    JC Perez	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	2'01.721	13.488
39	48	Corey Lewis   Bryan Sellers   Madison Snow	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	2'02.139	13.906
40	36	Marc Miller   Kuno Wittmer   Till Bechtolsheimer	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	2'02.398	14.165
41	69	Ryan Eversley   Tom Dyer   Chad Gilsinger	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	2'02.427	14.194
42	73	Jörg Bergmeister   Tim Pappas   Patrick Lindsey	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	2'02.815	14.582