Le Mans 24h: Toyota quickest in accident-strewn third practice

In the final on-track running before Hyperpole qualifying, Kamui Kobayashi recorded a best effort of 3m26.796s at the wheel of the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid - around half a second quicker than he managed during first qualifying on Wednesday.

Brendon Hartley backed that up with a 3m27.115s in the sister #8 car to go second-quickest ahead of the two Glickenhaus 007 LMHs.

The American boutique marque's best lap was a 3m27.466s from Olivier Pla in the #708 car, a little under seven tenths off the pace and marginally slower than its first qualifying benchmark, while Ryan Briscoe posted a 3m28.073s in the sister #709 machine.

Propping up the order in the five-car Hypercar class was Alpine's grandfathered A480-Gibson LMP1, despite receiving a power increase in a revised Balance of Performance issued as the three-hour session began.

Matthieu Vaxiviere was 2.4 seconds down on Kobayashi with a 3m29.259s, only a minor improvement on Nicolas Lapierre's effort in the #36 machine in first qualifying.

Toyota's #8 car lost more track time with an electrical glitch that prompted Ryo Hirakawa to briefly stop on-track between Indianapolis and Arnage corners before bringing the stricken machine back for a stint in the garage.

That was prior to a 20-minute red flag period caused by a major crash for the #13 TDS Racing Oreca LMP2 of Philippe Cimadomo at Corvette Curve, the result of slight contact with the #31 WRT car of Sean Gelael.

Topping the times in the LMP2 class were United Autosports' pair of Oreca 07s, which both set their fastest times in the final five minutes of the session.

Filipe Albuquerque was quickest in the class on a 3m20.964s aboard the #22 United entry, going less than a tenth faster than squadmate Alex Lynn in the #23 car.

Robin Frijns, who set his best lap of 3m31.030s immediately after the red flag period, was demoted to third place in the #31 WRT car, ahead of Yifei Ye in the #37 Cool Racing entry and the best of the JOTA machines, the #38 car of Antonio Felix da Costa.

Most of the other major incidents during the session involved LMP2 runners.

Duqueine man Reshad de Gerus suffered an early off at Indianapolis, while following the red flag period Sebastien Page crashed the Graff car at the same part of the track, with both incidents being covered off with slow zones.

Miro Konopka also had an excursion through the gravel at the Dunlop chicane in the ARC Bratislava car following contact with another LMP2 car, although he was able to get going again.

Corvette Racing was again the team to beat in GTE Pro as Nick Tandy set a best time in class of 3m52.307s aboard the American marque's full-time WEC entry, the #64 C8.R.

A little under half a second down in second was the best of the factory Porsche 911 RSR-19s, the #91 machine of Richard Lietz, followed by the #63 Corvette of Antonio Garcia and the #92 Porsche of Michael Christensen.

Ferrari's pair of works 488 GTE Evos occupied fifth and sixth places in class, with Antonio Fuoco giving the Italian marque its best laptime aboard the #52 entry.

Mikkel Pedersen set the pace in GTE Am with a 3m54.386s aboard the #46 Team Project 1 Porsche, beating the TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Henrique Chaves by just over two tenths.

Hyperpole qualifying, involving the top six cars from each class, begins at 8pm local time.

2022 Le Mans 24 Hours - third practice results:

Pos.	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	7	Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	3'26.796
2	8	Sebastien Buemi  Brendon Hartley  Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	3'27.115	0.319
3	708	Olivier Pla  Romain Dumas  Pipo Derani	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	3'27.466	0.670
4	709	Ryan Briscoe  Richard Westbrook  Franck Mailleux	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	3'28.073	1.277
5	36	André Negrão  Nicolas Lapierre  Matthieu Vaxivière	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	3'29.259	2.463
6	22	Philip Hanson  Filipe Albuquerque  William Owen	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.964	4.168
7	23	Alex Lynn  Oliver Jarvis  Josh Pierson	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'31.025	4.229
8	31	Sean Gelael  Robin Frijns  René Rast	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'31.030	4.234
9	37	Ye Yifei  Ricky Taylor  Niklas Kruetten	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.057	5.261
10	38	Roberto Gonzalez  Antonio Felix da Costa  Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.151	5.355
11	41	Rui Andrade  Ferdinand Habsburg  Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.169	5.373
12	83	François Perrodo  Nicklas Nielsen  Alessio Rovera	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.349	5.553
13	13	Philippe Cimadomo  Mathias Beche  Tijmen van der Helm	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.384	5.588
14	48	Paul Lafargue  Paul Loup Chatin  Patrick Pilet	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'33.055	6.259
15	5	Dane Cameron  Emmanuel Collard  Felipe Nasr	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'33.247	6.451
16	28	Oliver Rasmussen  Edward Jones Jonathan Aberdein	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'33.249	6.453
17	43	David Heinemeier Hansson  Fabio Scherer  Pietro Fittipaldi	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'33.253	6.457
18	9	Robert Kubica  Louis Deletraz  Lorenzo Colombo	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'33.369	6.573
19	24	Rodrigo Sales  Matt Bell  Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'33.737	6.941
20	32	Rolf Ineichen  Mirko Bortolotti  Dries Vanthoor	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'33.794	6.998
21	3	Laurents Hörr  Jean Glorieux  Alexandre Cougnaud	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'34.085	7.289
22	1	Lilou Wadoux  Sébastien Ogier  Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'34.395	7.599
23	35	Jean-Baptiste Lahaye  Matthieu Lahaye  François Heriau	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'34.486	7.690
24	10	Nico Müller  Ryan Cullen  Sebastien Bourdais	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'34.511	7.715
25	45	Steven Thomas  James Allen  Rene Binder	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'34.543	7.747
26	30	Richard Bradley  Guillermo Rojas  Reshad de Gerus	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'34.788	7.992
27	39	Eric Trouillet Sebastien Page  David Droux	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'35.071	8.275
28	34	Jakub Smiechowski  Alex Brundle  Esteban Gutierrez	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'36.285	9.489
29	65	Julien Canal  Nico Jamin  Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'36.451	9.655
30	47	Sophia Floersch  John Falb  Jack Aitken	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'36.841	10.045
31	27	Cresp Christophe Michael Jensen  Steven Palette	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'39.056	12.260
32	44	Miroslav Konopka  Bent Viscaal  Tristan Vautier	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'47.210	20.414
33	64	Tommy Milner  Nick Tandy  Alexander Sims	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	3'52.307	25.511
34	91	Gianmaria Bruni  Richard Lietz  Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'52.787	25.991
35	63	Antonio Garcia  Jordan Taylor  Nicky Catsburg	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	3'52.824	26.028
36	92	Michael Christensen  Kevin Estre  Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'52.898	26.102
37	52	Miguel Molina  Antonio Fuoco  Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'53.368	26.572
38	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi  James Calado  Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'54.249	27.453
39	46	Matteo Cairoli  Mikkel Pedersen  Nicolas Leutwiler	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'54.386	27.590
40	33	Ben Keating  Henrique Chaves  Marco Sørensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'54.618	27.822
41	99	Andrew Haryanto  Alessio Picariello  Martin Rump	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'54.906	28.110
42	98	Paul Dalla Lana  David Pittard  Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'54.937	28.141
43	77	Christian Ried  Sebastian Priaulx  Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'55.164	28.368
44	80	Matteo Cressoni  Giancarlo Fisichella  Richard Heistand	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.269	28.473
45	21	Simon Mann  Christoph Ulrich  Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.286	28.490
46	88	Fred Poordad  Max Root  Jan Heylen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'55.315	28.519
47	61	Louis Prette  Conrad Grunewald  Vincent Abril	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.397	28.601
48	71	Franck Dezoteux  Pierre Ragues  Gabriel Aubry	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.531	28.735
49	86	Michael Wainwright  Riccardo Pera  Ben Barker	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'55.575	28.779
50	55	Duncan Cameron  Matt Griffin David Perel	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.582	28.786
51	85	Rahel Frey  Michelle Gatting  Sarah Bovy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.629	28.833
52	54	Thomas Flohr  Francesco Castellacci  Nick Cassidy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.658	28.862
53	777	Satoshi Hoshino  Tomonobu Fujii  Charles Fagg	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'55.659	28.863
54	60	Claudio Schiavoni  Alessandro Balzan  Raffaele Giammaria	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.764	28.968
55	59	Alexander West  Côme Ledogar  Marvin Klein	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'55.882	29.086
56	93	Michael Fassbender  Matthew Campbell  Zacharie Robichon	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'56.039	29.243
57	79	Cooper MacNeil  Julien Andlauer Thomas Merrill	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'56.201	29.405
58	57	Takeshi Kimura  Frederik Schandorff  Mikkel Jensen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'56.257	29.461
59	56	Brendan Iribe  Ollie Millroy  Ben Barnicoat	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'56.792	29.996
60	75	Pierre Ehret  Christian Hook  Nicolas Varrone	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'56.893	30.097
61	66	Renger van der Zande  Mark Kvamme  Jason Hart	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'57.696	30.900
62	74	Felipe Fraga  Sam Bird  Shane van Gisbergen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	4'27.690	1'00.894