Abrupt end to FP3

The third free practice for this year’s Le Mans race, which was the only night session this year, got to an abrupt ending of the originally 4 hours of driving.

The first issue showed up, just over an hour into the session. ByKolles Racing Team #4 had an episode, where the front of the car suddenly was spread all over the Tertre Rouge corner. That resulted in a Red Flag, so all the debris could be collected.

Other than that, there was a few brake lock-ups here and there, just as well as some drivers had small trips through the gravel run-offs, but nothing too serious.

IDEC Sport continued to work on getting their cars ready again, after the earlier FP2 crashes.

The practice ended with about 20 minutes to go. Red River Sport Ferrari #62 with Bonamy Grimes behind the wheel had a bit accident going into the first chicane, with the front of the 488 heavily demolished. There was so much to clean up, and there only would be very few minutes left of the session to do, if it would be possible at all. Since the teams already had gotten so much running throughout the day, the race control decided to call it a day, and finish 20 minutes early.

Rebellion Racing #3 with Romain Dumas, Louis Deletraz and Nathanael Berthon was fastest of all, ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing #7 with Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez, while Rebellion Racing #1 with Bruno Senna, Norman Nato and Gustavo Menezes was third fastest LMP1 car.

Duqueine Team #30 with Jonathan Hirschi, Tristan Gommendy and Konstantin Tereschenko was fastest LMP2 car, ahead of United Autosports #32 with Will Owen, Alex Brundle and Job van Uitert, while G-Drive Racing #26 with Jean-Eric Vergne, Roman Rusinov and Mikkel Jensen were third.

Porsche #92 with Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor was the fastest car in GTE Pro, ahead of Aston Martin Racing #97 with birthday boy Alexander Lynn, Maxime Martin and Harry Tincknell, while AMR #95 with Nicki Thiim, Marco Sørensen and Richard Westbrook was P3.

MR Racing Ferrari #70 with Kei Cozzolino, Takeshi Kimura and Vincent Abril was fastest in GTE Am, ahead of Aston Martin Racing #98 with Augusto Farfus, Paul Dalla Lana and Ross Gunn, while Iron Lynx Ferrari #60 with Claudio Schiavoni, Sergio Pianezzola and Andrea Piccini was third fastest.