BMW’s Vanthoor Quickest in Le Mans FP3

Photo: Charly López/DPPI

Dries Vanthoor put BMW M Team WRT on the top of the time charts for the first time this week, having paced the final Free Practice prior to Hyperpole for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Belgian driver in the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 reeled off a chart-topping 3:23.302 lap time in the final moments of the three-hour FP3 session, outpacing another late improvement from the No. 35 Alpine A424 of Victor Martins, by 0.423 seconds.

Will Stevens, whose 3:24.795 lap time in the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R held as the quickest time for most of the session, improved to a 3:23.816 to end up third.

The No. 20 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde was fourth quickest, while Mathys Jaubert completed the top-five in the best-ever result in a session for the first-year Hypercar manufacturer.

A red flag for the No. 222 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson of Daniel Schneider, who made contact with the tire barriers at the Ford Chicane, resulted in a red flag with 25 minutes to go.

The session resumed with 16 minutes left on the clock, which saw the string of rapid improvements with nearly all Hypercar teams on qualifying simulation runs.

The No. 38 JOTA Cadillac was sixth, followed by the No. 35 Alpine, No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, which saw a top-eight sweep by LMDh-based prototypes.

The best of the LMH cars was the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P in ninth.

LMP2 was led by the No. 29 Forestier Racing by Panis Oreca of Oliver Gray, thanks to a 3:34.252 time, despite an incident in the session when the car appeared to be shoved off by a Hypercar into an advertising board at the Ford Chicane, resulting in a Full Course Yellow.

The pace-setting time by the Panis Oreca was a mere 0.001 seconds quicker than the No. 30 Duqueine Team entry of Julien Andlauer, with the No. 343 Inter Europol Competition Oreca third in the hands of Nico Mueller.

There were no late-session improvements at the top of the time charts in LMGT3, with a 3:53.728 lap time set by Eduaro Barrichello in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo holding as the quickest in class.

Barrichello’s time pipped the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Augusto Farfus by 0.208 seconds.

The No. 87 Akkodis-ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3 was third quickest.

In addition to the incidents at the Ford Chicane, there were several other accidents, including an off for the No. 44 Proton Competition Oreca of Horst Felix Felbermayr at the Porsche Curves with one hour completed.

The No. 28 IDEC Sport entry of Valerio Rinicella, meanwhile, had an off at Arnage, while Ben Hanley found the gravel trap at Indianapolis in his No. 222 United entry early on.

Thedor Jensen, in the all-teenage-driven No. 37 CLX Motorsport LMP2 car, was also reported in the barriers at one stage.

Hyperpole 1 kicks off at 8 p.m. CEST (2 p.m. EST) for LMP2 and LMGT3 followed by Hyperpole 2 for the cars. The knockout round for Hypercar is on tap for 9:05 p.m. CEST (3:05 p.m. EST) prior to the final, overall pole-deciding session at 9:40 p.m. CEST (3:40 p.m. EST).

RESULTS: Free Practice 3

Source: Sports Car 365