Le Mans Series, Estoril - Saturday - Free Practice 3 Report

Saturday dawned with the remnants of some cloud cover dissolving away after some overnight rain, temperatures already at around 17 degrees C.

Free Practice 3 got underway at 08:55, being the first track action of the day although tomorrow sees a 45 minute Radical Masters race start at 08:05! The track temperature was 10 degrees C less than yesterday afternoon.

#51 was again a late starter, the championship winners are apparently taking a very relaxed approach to the weekend so far. Gimmi Bruni explained that was far from the case. “We have a new car straight from the factory this weekend as our car is already going to Petit Le Mans. The truck bringing the car here had an accident on Tuesday and we couldn’t open the back of it for two days until it was repaired to get the car out. We only managed to go through scrutineering very late at 11AM yesterday and we are still building up this brand new car but every time we put pieces in the car it causes an issue. I think we have electronic problems at the moment. This is not our main focus now, it is Petit, it was great to win the championship at Silverstone but we will have to see how we go here.”

After only three or so laps, the front running cars were setting comparable sectors to yesterday. P2 in particular saw Kimber-Smith, Beche and Kane straight into the low 1:33s.

Marroc posted an early 1:37.836, six tenths quicker than anything FLM had seen so far, then a 1:36.734, two and a half seconds faster than Simon, Graves around three seconds further back.

The other class of three was much closer, Jousse leading the initial running in P1 with a 1:32.172, with Boullion and Prost both within a second.

With 15 minutes gone Kimber-Smith moved to second overall with a 1:32.477, eight tenths ahead clear of Beche’s TDS Oreca. Pace like that may very well clinch them the championship in qualifying this lunchtime.

Jousse and Prost both started to push with 20 minutes gone, Prost the stronger with a 1:31.244, losing time compared with Boullion’s best of the meeting particularly in the second sector, which nobody had got within half a second of. Jousse was at least back up to second place overall with a 1:31.904.

In GTE Pro they were still half a second off #77’s time of yesterday, but Ferrari held sway, #89, #71, #90, #66 before #77, #75 and #76 from the Porsche ranks.

With 35 minutes to go Beche blitzed to the top of P2 and very nearly the top of everything with a 1:31.693, second overall. Ebbesvik’s best so far for Boutsen Energy today was a 1:34.233, Kane around a second faster for Strakka but neither suggesting yet that they have the pace to do anything directly to prevent Greaves from gaining the point that would seal the championship. Perhaps beyond a Danny Watts all-out lap, a pole for TDS Racing is their biggest hope... Just five minutes later though and Ebbesvik improved to a 1:32.480, sidling right up to the back of Greaves Motorsport.

In GTE Am IMSA were showing with a surprising 1:39.493, surprising because it was four tenths faster than anything seen in GTE Pro or Am so far! Holzer had matched #77s time of yesterday to head GTE Pro, half a second ahead of #89, #51 (Bruni having carried out some limited running), #71 and #90, those four covered by only three tenths.

GTE Am made up the final three places on the table in the order Quaife, Cioci and Felbermayr Junior in the mid 1:42s.

Into the final quarter of an hour and Jousse was pushing again, the Pescarolo seemed to be quicker than Rebellion’s pair in the final sector.

Watts improved Strakka’s time to a 1:32.750 so Greaves, Boutsen Energy and Strakka were all bunched together, still three-quarters of a second down on Beche’s best though.

Bell jumped to the top of GTE Pro for JMW with a 1:39.625 and Cioci was making progress in GTE Am, now three tenths ahead of CRS, though still down on IMSA’s Am car time, if indeed it was correct.

Into the final ten minutes and Jani blitzed the first and second sectors to set the fastest time overall so far, a 1:30.034, Jousse following through with his best of a 1:30.703. Jani lost two tenths to Pescarolo’s best in the final sector so we should be seeing high 1:20s in qualifying.

Lietz took over at the head of GTE Pro again with a 1:39.618, Pilet was also improving to fourth in class, Porsche hoping to swat JMW back down the order and lock this one out, but Bell’s time was good enough to stay second in class.

FLM did close up to be covered by one and a half seconds, Kapadia improving a place on taking the flag for Neil Garner to end up 13th overall , between #99 and #95 12th and 14th overall respectively.

Next up GT qualifying at 12:50, prototypes at 13:20.