Le Mans 24h: Calado puts Ferrari top in final practice session

Taking over the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar that Alessandro Pier Guidi drove to second in Hyperpole, Calado whisked to a time of 3m27.275s shortly before Jean-Eric Vergne’s #93 Peugeot 9X8 LMH brought out the red flags when it stopped between the two Mulsanne Chicanes.

The one-hour session was restarted with 20 minutes still on the clock, but there were few noteworthy improvements thereafter as Calado’s benchmark time held.

Calado was 1.003s faster than Esteban Gutierrez in the Le Mans-only #709 Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 that will start the World Endurance Championship blue riband from 14th.

Gutierrez was in turn 0.162s faster than the Jota Porsche 963 LMDh campaigned by Will Stevens, which missed qualifying on Wednesday due to an electronic problem.

Kevin Estre improved to fourth after the red flag in the best of the factory Penske-run Porsches, his #6 machine usurping the Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Alexander Sims.

Jose Maria Lopez completed the top six in the leading Toyota GR010 HYBRID, 1.648s down on Calado, while a late effort from polesitter Antonio Fuoco in the second Ferrari secured him seventh in the #50 machine that didn’t set a time prior to the stoppage.

Vergne was shuffled back to eighth ahead of Michael Christensen’s #5 Penske Porsche as Richard Westbrook completed the top 10 in WEC full-season Ganassi Cadillac.

Tom Dillmann’s early effort aboard the Vanwall Vandervell 680 slotted him into 11th, ahead of Romain Dumas in the second Glickenhaus and Mathieu Jaminet’s #75 Porsche.

#75 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr, Mathieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy

Photo by: Marc Fleury

The #7 Toyota likewise only appeared in the final third of the session and ended up 14th in Sebastien Buemi's hands ahead of the #93 Peugeot campaigned by Loic Duval.

After a burst high pressure fuel hose caused a fire in Hyperpole, the #3 Ganassi Cadillac didn’t turn a lap.

The LMP2 pace was set by Dries Vanthoor’s TF Sport-run Racing Team Turkey ORECA-Gibson 07 as the BMW factory driver stormed to the top of the timesheets.

Vanthoor logged a 3m36.229s aboard the pro-am entry to beat Job van Uitert by 0.421s in the ORECA fielded by Panis Racing.

After a late effort from Prema’s Mirko Bortolotti secured the fastest time in Wednesday evening’s FP2 session, the Lamborghini factory driver repeated the trick to move into third in the dying minutes of the session.

That demoted Tom Blomqvist to fourth in the #23 United Autosport entry, as Ben Barnicoat (AF Corse) and Pietro Fittipaldi’s pole-contending Jota machine rounded out the top six.

LMP2 polewinners IDEC Sport ended up 14th with Laurents Horr setting its best time.

#66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE EVO of Thomas Neubauer, Louis Prette, Giacomo Petrobelli

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

An early lap from Thomas Neubauer in the repaired JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE Evo secured the top spot in GTE Am.

The Frenchman, in the car crashed during opening practice by Louis Prette, beat Ferrari factory driver Daniel Serra’s Kessel example to the top spot by 0.104s with a 3m52.965s lap.

Alessio Picariello shuffled up the order into third in the closing stages aboard his Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19 ahead of fellow late improver Jan Heylen’s Proton example, as polewinner Corvette Racing’s works-entered C8.R ended up sixth with Nicolas Varrone at the wheel.

Le Mans 24 Hours - FP4 results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	51	James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	3'27.275
2	709	Nathanael Berthon Esteban Gutierrez Franck Mailleux	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	3'28.278	1.003
3	38	Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens Ye Yifei	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	3'28.440	1.165
4	6	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	3'28.457	1.182
5	311	Jack Aitken Pipo Derani Alexander Sims	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	3'28.603	1.328
6	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	3'28.923	1.648
7	50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	3'28.935	1.660
8	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	3'29.053	1.778
9	5	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	3'29.371	2.096
10	2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	3'29.948	2.673
11	4	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Tristan Vautier	Vanwall Vandervell 680	HYPERCAR	3'30.115	2.840
12	708	Ryan Briscoe Romain Dumas Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	3'30.202	2.927
13	75	Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr Nick Tandy	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	3'30.534	3.259
14	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	3'30.616	3.341
15	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	3'30.881	3.606
16	923	Tom Gamble Dries Vanthoor Salih Yoluc	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'36.229	8.954
17	65	Tijmen van der Helm Manuel Maldonado Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'36.650	9.375
18	63	Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat Doriane Pin	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'36.904	9.629
19	23	Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'36.964	9.689
20	80	Ben Barnicoat Norman Nato François Perrodo	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.126	9.851
21	28	Pietro Fittipaldi David Heinemeier Hansson Oliver Rasmussen	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.351	10.076
22	9	Juan Manuel Correa Filip Ugran Bent Viscaal	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.360	10.085
23	22	Filipe Albuquerque Philip Hanson Frederick Lubin	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.407	10.132
24	31	Robin Frijns Sean Gelael Ferdinand Habsburg	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'37.877	10.602
25	37	Alexandre Coigny Malthe Jakobsen Nicolas Lapierre	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.241	10.966
26	14	Mathias Beche Ben Hanley Rodrigo Sales	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.637	11.362
27	47	Reshad de Gerus Vlad Lomko Simon Pagenaud	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.714	11.439
28	43	Maxime Martin Tom Van Rompuy Ugo de Wilde	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.760	11.485
29	48	Paul-Loup Chatin Laurents Hörr Paul Lafargue	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.777	11.502
30	36	Julien Canal Charles Milesi Matthieu Vaxiviere	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'38.972	11.697
31	41	Rui Andrade Louis Deletraz Robert Kubica	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'39.064	11.789
32	39	Giedo van der Garde Roberto Lacorte Patrick Pilet	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'39.155	11.880
33	34	Albert Costa Fabio Scherer Jakub Smiechowski	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'39.211	11.936
34	30	Rene Binder Neel Jani Nicolas Pino	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'39.376	12.101
35	10	Gabriel Aubry Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'40.079	12.804
36	45	James Allen Colin Braun George Kurtz	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'40.689	13.414
37	13	René Rast Ricky Taylor Steven Thomas	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'40.822	13.547
38	32	Anders Fjordbach Mark Kvamme Jan Magnussen	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'42.853	15.578
39	35	Olli Caldwell Andre Negrao Memo Rojas	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'43.623	16.348
40	24	Jenson Button Jimmie Johnson Mike Rockenfeller	Chevrolet Camaro ZL1	INNOVATIVE CAR	3'51.903	24.628
41	66	Thomas Neubauer Giacomo Petrobelli Louis Prette	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'52.965	25.690
42	57	Scott Huffaker Takeshi Kimura Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'53.069	25.794
43	60	Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello Claudio Schiavoni	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'53.316	26.041
44	16	Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen Zacharie Robichon	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'53.419	26.144
45	56	Matteo Cairoli PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'53.439	26.164
46	33	Nick Catsburg Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE AM	3'53.624	26.349
47	54	Francesco Castellacci Thomas Flohr Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'53.652	26.377
48	21	Simon Mann Ulysse De Pauw Julien Piguet	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'53.721	26.446
49	88	Jonas Ried Harry Tincknell Don Yount	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'53.745	26.470
50	98	Ian James Daniel Mancinelli Alex Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'53.861	26.586
51	86	Benjamin Barker Riccardo Pera Michael Wainwright	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'53.912	26.637
52	85	Sarah Bovy Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	3'54.423	27.148
53	83	Luis Perez Companc Alessio Rovera Lilou Wadoux	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'54.602	27.327
54	55	Gustav Birch Jens Reno Moller Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'57.318	30.043
55	74	Kei Cozzolino Yorikatsu Tsujiko Naoki Yokomizo	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'59.031	31.756
56	100	Andrew Haryanto Chandler Hull Jeff Segal	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	4'00.451	33.176
57	777	Tomonobu Fujii Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	4'01.206	33.931
58	72	Valentin Hasse-Clot Arnold Robin Maxime Robin	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	4'01.606	34.331
59	77	Julien Andlauer Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	4'07.309	40.034
60	3	Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon Renger van der Zande	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR
61	25	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM
62	911	Michael Fassbender Richard Lietz Martin Rump	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM
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