Spa WEC: Toyota almost 3s clear of privateers in FP3

At the wheel of the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, Kamui Kobayashi pumped in a 1m54.105s with 36 minutes left on the clock, beating last year's quickest qualifying time by three tenths.

That was enough to best the early-session benchmark laid down by Kazuki Nakajima in the #8 car, a 1m56.351s, by a full 2.2s.

Nakajima coasted back to the pits on electrical power only shortly after that, as Toyota simulated running out of fuel.

SMP Racing, which topped Thursday's running, cemented itself as the non-hybrid LMP1 squad to beat by locking out third and fourth positions behind the Toyotas.

Egor Orudzhev recorded the Russian squad's best time in the #17 BR Engineering BR1-AER, which was repaired overnight after Stephane Sarrazin's crash in FP2, a 1m56.842s.

WEC newcomer Stoffel Vandoorne posted the best time in the #11 car, a further six tenths back, ahead of the two Rebellion R-13 Gibsons.

Bruno Senna recorded the Swiss outfit's best time of 1m57.816s in the #1 car to go 1.8s up on the #3 machine of Nathanael Berthon.

G-Drive Racing was best of the LMP2 runners and seventh overall, thanks to a time of 2m01.143s by Jean-Eric Vergne in the team's Aurus-branded Oreca.

Will Stevens was seventh tenths down in the newly-reliveried #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca, while Gabriel Aubry was third fastest in the sister #37 car.

The ByKolles LMP1 ended up slower than the entire LMP2 field, as Paolo Ruberti spent the majority of the hour-long session at the wheel of the Gibson-powered ENSO CLM P1/01.

Porsche and Ford locked out the top four positions in GTE Pro between them.

Gianmaria Bruni left it late to set the class benchmark of 2m13.945s in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR, beating Harry Tincknell's best effort in the #67 Ford GT by a little over two tenths.

The points-leading #92 Porsche, driven by Kevin Estre, was third ahead of Olivier Pla's #66 Ford and the two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs.

Aston Martin could only manage seventh and ninth with its pair of Vantage GTEs despite leading the class early on, sandwiching the quicker of the BMW M8 GTEs.

Matteo Cairoli set the best time in GTE Am, a 2m15.190s, to beat Proton Porsche teammate Matt Campbell by 0.190s.

Third practice results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'54.105
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Fernando Alonso	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'56.351
3	17	Stéphane Sarrazin Egor Orudzhev Sergey Sirotkin	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	1'56.842
4	11	Mikhail Aleshin Vitaly Petrov Stoffel Vandoorne	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	1'57.475
5	1	Neel Jani Andre Lotterer Bruno Senna	Rebellion R13	LMP1	1'57.816
6	3	Nathanael Berthon Thomas Laurent Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13	LMP1	1'59.664
7	26	Roman Rusinov Job Van Uitert Jean-Eric Vergne	Aurus 01	LMP2	2'01.143
8	37	David Heinemeier Hansson Jordan King Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'01.826
9	38	Ho-Pin Tung Gabriel Aubry Stéphane Richelmi	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'02.830
10	31	Roberto Gonzalez Pastor Maldonado Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'02.969
11	28	François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'03.073
12	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries	Dallara P217	LMP2	2'03.400
13	36	Nicolas Lapierre Andre Negrao Pierre Thiriet	Alpine A470	LMP2	2'03.866
14	50	Erwin Creed Romano Ricci Nicholas Boulle	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	2'05.587
15	4	Tom Dillmann Oliver Webb Paolo Ruberti	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	2'05.697
16	91	Richard Lietz Gianmaria Bruni	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	2'13.722
17	67	Andy Priaulx Harry Tincknell	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	2'13.945
18	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	2'14.264
19	66	Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	2'14.480
20	71	Davide Rigon Sam Bird	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	2'14.526
21	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	2'14.617
22	97	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	2'14.695
23	82	Augusto Farfus Antonio Felix da Costa	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	2'14.859
24	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	2'15.149
25	88	Gianluca Roda Giorgio Roda Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'15.190
26	77	Christian Ried Riccardo Pera Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'15.380
27	81	Martin Tomczyk Nick Catsburg	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	2'15.439
28	56	Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'15.595
29	90	Salih Yoluc Euan Hankey Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	2'16.273
30	98	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	2'16.316
31	70	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	2'16.829
32	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	2'16.843
33	61	Luis Perez Companc Matteo Cressoni Matthew Griffin	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	2'16.946
34	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'18.157
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