Le Mans 24h: Alpine splits the Toyotas in FP4
Alpine split the Toyotas in the final practice ahead of this weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours, the blue riband round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Nicolas Lapierre got within three tenths of Kazuki Nakajima's time-topping Toyota during the fourth period of free practice that followed the Hyperpole qualifying session.
Nakajima set the pace from the beginning of Thursday evening's night session in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, ending up on a 3m27.994s.
Lapierre posted an improvement with 40 minutes to go, getting down to a 3m28.280s aboard the Alpine A480. Pole winner Kamui Kobayashi improved to a 3m29.567s late in the session but remained third in the #7 Toyota.
Ryan Briscoe ended up fastest of the two Glickenhaus 007 LMHs with a 3m30.309s.
Franco Colapinto took LMP2 honours in the G-Drive Racing's lead entry. The Argentinian took the top spot with 3m31.414s set early in the session aboard his Aurus-badged Oreca 07-Gibson.
That put him nearly half a second up on Job van Uitert's 3m31.862sin the TDS-run Racing Team Nederland Oreca.
Filipe Albuquerque claimed third spot for United Autosports ahead of Gabriel Aubry's Panis Racing-run PR1/Mathiasen Oreca.
#79 Weathertech Racing Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE Pro, Cooper MacNeil, Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor
Photo by: Paul Foster
WeatherTech Porsche heads GTE Pro
Laurens Vanthoor, older brother of class pole winner Dries, led the way in GTE Pro for the privateer WeatherTech Racing Porsche squad.
The Belgian's 3m48.246s aboard the Proton-run WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR-19 put him a second clear of Gianmaria Bruni in the only factory Porsche to take part in the session.
Bruni's 3m49.334s had leapfrogged him to the top of the times ahead of the two Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs halfway through the session. Antonio Garcia ended up third with a 3m49.406s ahead of Alexander Sims, who was just behind on 3m49.684s.
The pole-winning HubAuto Porsche claimed fifth in Maxime Martin's hands ahead of the two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos.
GTE Am honours went to the AF Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen, who was just over a tenth up on Optimum-run Inception Racing Ferrari in Ben Barnicoat's hands.
The session was halted 15 minutes before its two-hour duration was complete when Ollie Millroy put the Inception Ferrari in the barriers at the Ford Chicane.
Fifty-eight of the 62 cars entered for the race took part in FP4. Those missing included the #92 factory Porsche crashed by Kevin Estre during Hyperpole qualifying.
Track action resumes at Le Mans at 1130 local time with the 15-minute warm-up session ahead of the 1600 race start of the 89th edition of the 24 Hours.
Le Mans 24 Hours - FP4 results
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 |  Sébastien Buemi  Kazuki Nakajima  Brendon Hartley |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 3'27.994 | |
| 2 | 36 |  Andre Negrao  Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 3'28.280 | 0.286 |
| 3 | 7 |  Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 3'29.567 | 1.573 |
| 4 | 709 |  Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Romain Dumas |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 3'30.309 | 2.315 |
| 5 | 26 |  Roman Rusinov Franco Colapinto  Nyck de Vries |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 3'31.414 | 3.420 |
| 6 | 29 | Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.862 | 3.868 |
| 7 | 22 | Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer  Filipe Albuquerque |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.006 | 4.012 |
| 8 | 24 |  Patrick Kelly Gabriel Aubry Simon Trummer |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.209 | 4.215 |
| 9 | 38 |  Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.223 | 4.229 |
| 10 | 41 |  Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz  Ye Yifei |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.324 | 4.330 |
| 11 | 28 |  Sean Gelael  Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.377 | 4.383 |
| 12 | 70 | Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.744 | 4.750 |
| 13 | 34 | Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.209 | 5.215 |
| 14 | 31 | Robin Frijns  Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.238 | 5.244 |
| 15 | 32 | Nico Jamin  Jonathan Aberdein  Manuel Maldonado |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.366 | 5.372 |
| 16 | 48 | Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Patrick Pilet |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.135 | 6.141 |
| 17 | 82 |  Ryan Cullen Oliver Jarvis Felipe Nasr |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.310 | 6.316 |
| 18 | 65 | Julien Canal Will Stevens James Allen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.332 | 6.338 |
| 19 | 20 |  Dennis Andersen Ricky Taylor Marco Sorensen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.366 | 6.372 |
| 20 | 25 | John Falb  Roberto Merhi Rui Andrade |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 3'34.409 | 6.415 |
| 21 | 49 | Anders Fjordbach Jan Magnussen Kevin Magnussen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.701 | 6.707 |
| 22 | 23 | Paul di Resta Alex Lynn Wayne Boyd |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.899 | 6.905 |
| 23 | 30 | Rene Binder Memo Rojas Tristan Gommendy |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'35.017 | 7.023 |
| 24 | 1 |  Tatiana Calderon  Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'35.462 | 7.468 |
| 25 | 21 |  Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley Juan Pablo Montoya |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'35.875 | 7.881 |
| 26 | 708 | Pipo Derani Franck Mailleux Olivier Pla |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 3'36.178 | 8.184 |
| 27 | 39 | Vincent Capillaire Arnold Robin Maxime Robin |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'36.604 | 8.610 |
| 28 | 44 |  Miro Konopka Oliver Webb Matej Konopka |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'43.383 | 15.389 |
| 29 | 74 | James Winslow John Corbett Tom Cloet |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'44.020 | 16.026 |
| 30 | 79 | Cooper MacNeil Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'48.246 | 20.252 |
| 31 | 84 | Takuma Aoki Nigel Bailly Matthieu Lahaye |
Oreca 07 | INNOVATIVE CAR | 3'48.747 | 20.753 |
| 32 | 91 |  Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.334 | 21.340 |
| 33 | 63 | Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.603 | 21.609 |
| 34 | 64 | Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Alexander Sims |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.684 | 21.690 |
| 35 | 72 | Dries Vanthoor Alvaro Parente Maxime Martin |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.886 | 22.892 |
| 36 | 51 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Côme Ledogar |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.473 | 23.479 |
| 37 | 83 | François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'51.561 | 23.567 |
| 38 | 71 | Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'51.692 | 23.698 |
| 39 | 99 | Harry Tincknell  Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak Florian Latorre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'51.736 | 23.742 |
| 40 | 18 | Andrew Haryanto Alessio Picariello Marco Seefried |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'51.758 | 23.764 |
| 41 | 66 | Thomas Neubauer Rodrigo Sales Jody Fannin |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'51.838 | 23.844 |
| 42 | 98 |  Paul Dalla Lana Nicki Thiim Marcos Gomes |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.053 | 24.059 |
| 43 | 46 |  Dennis Olsen Anders Buchardt Robby Foley |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.268 | 24.274 |
| 44 | 77 | Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.311 | 24.317 |
| 45 | 52 | Daniel Serra Miguel Molina Sam Bird |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'52.821 | 24.827 |
| 46 | 80 | Matteo Cressoni Rino Mastronardi Callum Ilott |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'52.900 | 24.906 |
| 47 | 57 | Takeshi Kimura Scott Andrews Mikkel Jensen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'52.928 | 24.934 |
| 48 | 47 | Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'53.299 | 25.305 |
| 49 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Giancarlo Fisichella Francesco Castellacci |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'53.415 | 25.421 |
| 50 | 388 | Pierre Ehret Christian Hook Jeroen Bleekemolen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'53.437 | 25.443 |
| 51 | 56 | Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'53.525 | 25.531 |
| 52 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'53.560 | 25.566 |
| 53 | 88 | Julien Andlauer Dominique Bastien Lance David Arnold |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'54.202 | 26.208 |
| 54 | 85 | Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'54.517 | 26.523 |
| 55 | 777 | Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'54.808 | 26.814 |
| 56 | 55 | Duncan Cameron David Perel Matthew Griffin |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'54.843 | 26.849 |
| 57 | 60 | Claudio Schiavoni Paolo Ruberti Raffaele Giammaria |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.421 | 27.427 |
| 58 | 69 | Robert Renauer Ralf Bohn Rolf Ineichen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'56.899 | 28.905 |
| 59 | 17 | Dwight Merriman Thomas Laurent Ryan Dalziel |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | ||
| 60 | 33 | Ben Keating  Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | ||
| 61 | 92 | Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | ||
| 62 | 95 | John Hartshorne Ollie Hancock Ross Gunn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | ||
| View full results | ||||||
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