Le Mans 24h: Alpine demotes Toyota in accident-filled FP3 session

In the final minutes of Thursday's three-hour session, Lapierre demoted Mike Conway's #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid with a late flyer of 3m26.594 in the grandfathered LMP1 machine.

Conway had set his 3m28.064s benchmark early in the three-hour session, which was marred by two red flags and multiple yellows as several drivers got caught out in the relatively cool conditions.

In the final half hour, Kazuki Nakajima went off the road in the left-hand part of Indianapolis, smashing the rear of his #8 Toyota but ultimately being able to recover his car back to the pits.

After his session-topping lap, Lapierre was lucky to avoid a similar fate when he went off in the same spot.

At the end of the first hour there was a first red flag for a big shunt by Dwight Merriman, who lost control of his #17 IDEC Sport Oreca under braking for the Dunlop chicane and clattered into the inside wall.

Juan Pablo Montoya then had a similar incident at the same corner, bringing out the second red flag when his #21 DragonSpeed Oreca turned sharp right into the wall and sustained severe front-end damage.

Beyond those stoppages, other incidents prevented several drivers from improving their times. Conway's teammate Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 Toyota was on course to lower the Briton's benchmark only to be thwarted by a yellow in the final sector.

Early in the session, Brendon Hartley clocked a time of 3m28.260s in the #8 Toyota, which ended up being good for third.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

Glickenhaus Racing only joined the running one hour into the session after new Pipo engines was installed in both Glickenhaus 007 LMH cars.

Olivier Pla took the #708 entry to fourth with a 3m28.728s, while the #709 sister car didn't set a competitive laptime and appeared to suffer a fresh engine issue in the closing minutes of FP3.

In LMP2, qualifying pace-setter Antonio Felix da Costa took the #38 JOTA Oreca-Gibson to the top of the timesheets in the final minutes with a 3m.30.507s lap, followed by an even quicker 3m30.213s.

He demoted Fabio Scherer, who had set a 3m30.660s at the end of the second hour aboard the #22 United Autosports Oreca.

In the #31 sister entry, Paul di Resta grabbed third with a 3m31.144s in the final hour, ahead of the #65 Panis Racing car of James Allen and the #41 WRT entry of Robin Frijns.

GTE Pro was again topped by the #92 factory Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Kevin Estre, who beat his own early benchmark of 3m48.857s with a 3m48.126s in the second hour.

Estre headed a Weissach clean sweep of the top three places, with Earl Bamber steering the Proton-run WeatherTech Racing Porsche to second, over a second down on Estre with a 3m49.435s, but three tenths quicker than the #91 works Porsche of Richard Lietz.

Alessandro Pier Guidi was fourth in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, narrowly ahead of stablemate Daniel Serra's #52 machine and the HubAuto Porsche of Dries Vanthoor.

Corvette Racing brought up the rear of the class courtesy of Tommy Milner in the #64 Corvette C8.R and Nicky Catsburg in the #63 machine.

In GTE Am, which was also dominated by Porsche, Julien Andlauer set a late 3m50.167s in the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 to go quickest.

Andlauer denied Matteo Cairoli, who had set a 3m50.792s in the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche earlier on.

Matt Campbell completed a 911 clean sweep of the top three in the #77 Dempsey Proton entry.

Action continues at 9:00pm local time for Hyperpole, in which the fastest six cars in each class from last night's Q1 session will battle for pole, immediately followed by night practice.

Le Mans 24 Hours - Practice 3 results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	3'26.594
2	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	3'28.064	1.470
3	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	3'28.260	1.666
4	708	Pipo Derani Franck Mailleux Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	3'28.728	2.134
5	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.213	3.619
6	22	Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.660	4.066
7	23	Paul di Resta Alex Lynn Wayne Boyd	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'31.144	4.550
8	65	Julien Canal Will Stevens James Allen	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'31.358	4.764
9	31	Robin Frijns Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'31.381	4.787
10	41	Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Ye Yifei	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'31.865	5.271
11	82	Ryan Cullen Oliver Jarvis Felipe Nasr	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'31.909	5.315
12	21	Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley Juan Pablo Montoya	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.178	5.584
13	34	Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.188	5.594
14	17	Dwight Merriman Thomas Laurent Ryan Dalziel	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.347	5.753
15	25	John Falb Roberto Merhi Rui Andrade	Aurus 01	LMP2	3'32.362	5.768
16	26	Roman Rusinov Franco Colapinto Nyck de Vries	Aurus 01	LMP2	3'32.397	5.803
17	70	Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.398	5.804
18	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.648	6.054
19	28	Sean Gelael Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.693	6.099
20	24	Patrick Kelly Gabriel Aubry Simon Trummer	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.798	6.204
21	48	Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Patrick Pilet	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'33.119	6.525
22	32	Nico Jamin Jonathan Aberdein Manuel Maldonado	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'33.328	6.734
23	30	Rene Binder Memo Rojas Tristan Gommendy	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'33.528	6.934
24	20	Dennis Andersen Ricky Taylor Marco Sorensen	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'33.578	6.984
25	1	Tatiana Calderon Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'34.688	8.094
26	49	Anders Fjordbach Jan Magnussen Kevin Magnussen	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'35.520	8.926
27	84	Takuma Aoki Nigel Bailly Matthieu Lahaye	Oreca 07	INNOVATIVE CAR	3'36.877	10.283
28	709	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Romain Dumas	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	3'36.941	10.347
29	39	Vincent Capillaire Arnold Robin Maxime Robin	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.031	10.437
30	74	James Winslow John Corbett Tom Cloet	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'43.673	17.079
31	44	Miro Konopka Oliver Webb Matej Konopka	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'47.444	20.850
32	92	Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'48.126	21.532
33	79	Cooper MacNeil Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'49.435	22.841
34	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'49.789	23.195
35	88	Julien Andlauer Dominique Bastien Lance David Arnold	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'50.167	23.573
36	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Côme Ledogar	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'50.311	23.717
37	52	Daniel Serra Miguel Molina Sam Bird	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'50.379	23.785
38	72	Dries Vanthoor Alvaro Parente Maxime Martin	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'50.631	24.037
39	56	Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'50.792	24.198
40	77	Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'50.823	24.229
41	64	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Alexander Sims	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	3'51.012	24.418
42	99	Harry Tincknell Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak Florian Latorre	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'51.212	24.618
43	63	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	3'51.327	24.733
44	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'51.424	24.830
45	54	Thomas Flohr Giancarlo Fisichella Francesco Castellacci	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'51.489	24.895
46	85	Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'51.703	25.109
47	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'51.802	25.208
48	55	Duncan Cameron David Perel Matthew Griffin	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'51.909	25.315
49	18	Andrew Haryanto Alessio Picariello Marco Seefried	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'52.011	25.417
50	33	Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'52.084	25.490
51	98	Paul Dalla Lana Nicki Thiim Marcos Gomes	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'52.171	25.577
52	60	Claudio Schiavoni Paolo Ruberti Raffaele Giammaria	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'52.447	25.853
53	57	Takeshi Kimura Scott Andrews Mikkel Jensen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'52.471	25.877
54	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'52.532	25.938
55	95	John Hartshorne Ollie Hancock Ross Gunn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'52.712	26.118
56	80	Matteo Cressoni Rino Mastronardi Callum Ilott	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'53.020	26.426
57	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'53.423	26.829
58	66	Thomas Neubauer Rodrigo Sales Jody Fannin	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'54.159	27.565
59	69	Robert Renauer Ralf Bohn Rolf Ineichen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'54.773	28.179
60	46	Dennis Olsen Anders Buchardt Robby Foley	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'56.561	29.967
61	71	Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'56.576	29.982
62	388	Pierre Ehret Christian Hook Jeroen Bleekemolen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'58.989	32.395
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