Practice report
WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans
Le Mans 24h: Rebellion tops curtailed third practice
Rebellion driver Louis Deletraz led the way in third free practice for the Le Mans 24 Hours, which featured four hours of night time running.
Filip Cleeren
Edited: Sep 18, 2020, 2:03 AM
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Thursday night’s third practice session was the only opportunity for drivers and teams to get some necessary night running in ahead of the race.
Most of the session’s fastest times were set in the first half, after which many teams switched to tyre work.
Deletraz hit the top of the timesheets in the first hour, setting a 3m19.158s lap in the #3 Rebellion R-13 LMP1 privateer.
Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi improved on his early lap times in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid to set a 3m19.638s in the second hour, closely followed by the second Rebellion of Gustavo Menezes.
Sebastien Buemi was fourth in the #8 Toyota. LMP1’s fifth and final entrant ByKolles lost a lot of track time after Bruno Spengler spanked the barrier at Tertre Rouge 90 minutes into the session, bringing out a red flag.
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In LMP2 Tristan Gommendy set the fastest time early on in the #30 Duqueine Oreca 07, his 3m28.013s remaining untouched for the entirety of the session.
United Autosport’s Job van Uitert took second with just over an hour to go in the #32 Oreca, nine tenths shy of Gommendy’s benchmark. With 30 minutes remaining Jean-Eric Vergne lifted his #26 G-Drive Oreca to third, another tenth in arrears.
Both IDEC Sport LMP2 cars remained in the pits after they suffered heavy accidents earlier on Thursday, the team's #28 Oreca requiring a new tub.
In GTE Pro Porsche’s Kevin Estre took the lead in the first hour.
The Frenchman’s 3m52.177s aboard the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 was three tenths faster than Maxime Martin in the #97 Aston Martin Vantage, who set his series of fast times in the final hour.
Marco Sorensen took third in the sister #95 Aston, followed by James Calado (#51 AF Corse) in the first of the Ferraris.
Kei Cozzolino was quickest in GTE Am with the Japanese MR Racing Ferrari, his 3m54.490s effort bettering Paolo Ruberti’s time in the final hour.
In the #98 Aston Augusto Farfus also dipped below the benchmark Ruberti set in the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari. The Brazilian got to within one tenth of Cozzolino but settled for second.
The session was curtailed 15 minutes early after a huge accident for Bonamy Grimes in the Red River Ferrari. The Briton lost his car under braking for the first Mulsanne chicane and clattered into the barriers, but climbed out unhurt.
Action continues on Friday with a short fourth practice session at 10.00am local time, followed by a Hyperpole shootout in which the six fastest cars of each category will fight for pole.
Practice results:
Pos. # Drivers Car Class Time Gap Int 1 3 
Romain Dumas
Nathanaël Berthon
Louis Deletraz Rebellion R13 LMP1 3'19.158 2 7 
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 3'19.638 0.480 0.480 3 1 
Bruno Senna
Norman Nato
Gustavo Menezes Rebellion R13 LMP1 3'19.775 0.617 0.137 4 8 Sebastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Brendon Hartley Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 3'20.673 1.515 0.898 5 30 Jonathan Hirschi
Konstantin Tereshchenko
Tristan Gommendy Oreca 07 LMP2 3'28.013 8.855 7.340 6 32 William Owen
Alex Brundle
Job van Uitert Oreca 07 LMP2 3'28.924 9.766 0.911 7 26 Roman Rusinov
Jean-Eric Vergne
Mikkel Jensen Aurus 01 LMP2 3'29.082 9.924 0.158 8 22 Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque
Paul di Resta Oreca 07 LMP2 3'29.341 10.183 0.259 9 29 Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde
Nyck de Vries Oreca 07 LMP2 3'29.364 10.206 0.023 10 31 Nico Jamin
Julien Canal
Matthieu Vaxivière Oreca 07 LMP2 3'30.337 11.179 0.973 11 37 
Ho-Pin Tung
Gabriel Aubry
Will Stevens Oreca 07 LMP2 3'30.402 11.244 0.065 12 42 Nicolas Lapierre
Antonin Borga
Alexandre Coigny Oreca 07 LMP2 3'30.478 11.320 0.076 13 36 André Negrão
Pierre Ragues
Thomas Laurent Alpine A470 LMP2 3'30.652 11.494 0.174 14 16 
Ryan Cullen
Oliver Jarvis
Nick Tandy Aurus 01 LMP2 3'30.652 11.494 0.000 15 38 Anthony Davidson
Antonio Felix da Costa
Roberto Gonzalez Oreca 07 LMP2 3'30.837 11.679 0.185 16 27 
Henrik Hedman
Ben Hanley
Renger van der Zande Oreca 07 LMP2 3'30.899 11.741 0.062 17 35 Nobuya Yamanaka
Nick Foster
Roberto Merhi Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 3'31.067 11.909 0.168 18 4 Tom Dillmann
Bruno Spengler
Oliver Webb ENSO CLM P1/01 LMP1 3'31.596 12.438 0.529 19 33 Kenta Yamashita
Mark Patterson
Anders Fjordbach Oreca 07 LMP2 3'31.870 12.712 0.274 20 21 
Juan Pablo Montoya
Timothe Buret
Memo Rojas Oreca 07 LMP2 3'31.879 12.721 0.009 21 25 John Falb
Simon Trummer
Matthew McMurry Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.034 12.876 0.155 22 39 James Allen
Vincent Capillaire
Charles Milesi Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.476 13.318 0.442 23 24 Garret Grist
Alex Kapadia
Anthony Wells Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.759 13.601 0.283 24 34 
Jakub Smiechowski
Rene Binder
Matevos Isaakyan Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 3'33.246 14.088 0.487 25 50 Tatiana Calderón
Sophia Floersch
Beitske Visser Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.442 15.284 1.196 26 47 
Roberto Lacorte
Andrea Belicchi
Giorgio Sernagiotto Dallara P217 LMP2 3'34.654 15.496 0.212 27 11 Adrien Tambay
Erik Maris
Christophe d'Ansembourg Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 3'34.734 15.576 0.080 28 92 Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre
Laurens Vanthoor Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 3'52.177 33.019 17.443 29 97 Maxime Martin
Alex Lynn
Harry Tincknell Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 3'52.442 33.284 0.265 30 95 Nicki Thiim
Marco Sørensen
Richard Westbrook Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 3'52.632 33.474 0.190 31 51 Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Daniel Serra Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'52.800 33.642 0.168 32 91 Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz
Frédéric Makowiecki Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 3'53.093 33.935 0.293 33 82 Olivier Pla
Sebastien Bourdais
Jules Gounon Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'53.367 34.209 0.274 34 71 Davide Rigon
Miguel Molina
Sam Bird Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'53.760 34.602 0.393 35 63 Cooper MacNeil
Toni Vilander
Jeffrey Segal Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'53.843 34.685 0.083 36 70 Takeshi Kimura
Vincent Abril
Kei Cozzolino Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'54.490 35.332 0.647 37 98 Paul Dalla Lana
Ross Gunn
Augusto Farfus Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'54.590 35.432 0.100 38 60 Claudio Schiavoni
Sergio Pianezzola
Paolo Ruberti Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'54.854 35.696 0.264 39 88 Thomas Preining
Dominique Bastien
Adrien de Leener Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'54.868 35.710 0.014 40 75 Rino Mastronardi
Matteo Cressoni
Andrea Piccini Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'54.938 35.780 0.070 41 77 Christian Ried
Riccardo Pera
Matthew Campbell Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'55.092 35.934 0.154 42 61 Francesco Piovanetti
Oswaldo Negri Jr
Côme Ledogar Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.431 36.273 0.339 43 83 François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard
Nicklas Nielsen Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.445 36.287 0.014 44 54 Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.936 36.778 0.491 45 90 
Salih Yoluc
Charlie Eastwood
Jonathan Adam Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'55.967 36.809 0.031 46 86 Michael Wainwright
Ben Barker
Andrew Watson Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'56.165 37.007 0.198 47 99 
Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak
Lucas Légeret
Julien Andlauer Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'56.168 37.010 0.003 48 57 Ben Keating
Felipe Fraga
Jeroen Bleekemolen Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'56.172 37.014 0.004 49 56 
Egidio Perfetti
Larry ten Voorde
Matteo Cairoli Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'56.408 37.250 0.236 50 78 Horst Felbermayr Jr.
Michele Beretta
Max van Splunteren Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'56.865 37.707 0.457 51 72 
Morris Chen
Tom Blomqvist
Marcos Gomes Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'57.408 38.250 0.543 52 85 Manuela Gostner
Rahel Frey
Michelle Gatting Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'59.065 39.907 1.657 53 55 Duncan Cameron
Aaron Scott
Matt Griffin Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'59.500 40.342 0.435 54 89 Philippe Haezebrouck
Julien Piguet
Andreas Laskaratos Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 4'00.448 41.290 0.948 55 66 Richard Heistand
Max Root
Jan Magnussen Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 4'00.839 41.681 0.391 56 62 Bonamy Grimes
Johnny Mowlem
Charles Hollings Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 4'03.239 44.081 2.400 57 52 Christoph Ulrich
Steffen Gorig
Alexander West Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 4'06.052 46.894 2.813 58 17 Dwight Merriman
Kyle Tilley
John Kennard Oreca 07 LMP2 59 28 Paul Lafargue
Paul Loup Chatin
Richard Bradley Oreca 07 LMP2
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