In the ultimate minutes of Thursday’s three-hour session, Lapierre demoted Mike Conway’s #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID with a late flyer of 3m26.594s within the grandfathered LMP1 machine that raced final yr because the ORECA R13 underneath the Rebellion banner.
Conway had set his 3m28.064s benchmark early within the three-hour session, which was marred by two purple flags and a number of yellows as a number of drivers received caught out within the comparatively cool circumstances.
In the ultimate half hour, Nakajima went off the highway within the left-hand a part of Indianapolis, damaging the rear of his automotive towards the limitations however in the end recovering his automotive to the pits.
After his session-topping lap, Lapierre was fortunate to keep away from the same destiny when he went off in the identical spot.
The first purple flag was brought on when Dwight Merriman misplaced management of his #17 IDEC Sport ORECA LMP2 automotive underneath braking for the Dunlop chicane on the finish of the primary hour, the American clattering arduous into the wall.
Juan Pablo Montoya then had the same incident on the similar nook, bringing out the second purple flag when his #21 DragonSpeed ORECA turned sharp proper into the wall and sustained extreme front-end injury.
Beyond these stoppages, different incidents prevented a number of drivers from bettering their instances. Conway’s team-mate Jose Maria Lopez within the #7 Toyota was on target to decrease the Briton’s benchmark solely to be thwarted by a yellow within the ultimate sector.
Early within the session, Brendon Hartley clocked a time of 3m28.260s within the #8 Toyota, which ended up being good for third.
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid Hypercar, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Glickenhaus solely joined the session one hour in after new Pipo engines have been put in in each 007 LMH vehicles.
Olivier Pla took the #708 entry to fourth with a 3m28.728s, whereas the #709 sister automotive did not set a aggressive laptime and appeared to endure a recent engine situation within the closing minutes of FP3.
In LMP2, qualifying pace-setter Antonio Felix Da Costa took the #38 Jota ORECA to the highest of the timesheets within the ultimate minutes with a 3m.30.507s lap, which he adopted with a fair faster 3m30.213s.
This demoted Fabio Scherer, who had set a 3m30.660s on the finish of the second hour aboard the #22 United Autosports ORECA that presently leads the World Endurance Championship factors standings.
In the #31 sister entry, a one-off automotive put collectively for Le Mans, Paul di Resta grabbed third with a 3m31.144s within the ultimate hour that put him above the #65 Panis Racing automotive of James Allen and Robin Frijns within the #41 WRT entry.
GTE Pro was once more topped by the #92 manufacturing facility Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Kevin Estre, who beat his personal early benchmark of 3m48.857s with a 3m48.126s within the second hour.
Estre headed a Weissach clear sweep of the highest three locations, with Earl Bamber steering the Proton-run Weathertech Racing Porsche to second, over a second down on Estre with a 3m49.435s, however three tenths faster than the #91 works Porsche of Richard Lietz.
Alessandro Pier Guidi was fourth within the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, narrowly forward of stablemate Daniel Serra’s #52 machine and the HubAuto Porsche of Dries Vanthoor.
#72 Hub Auto Racing Porsche 911 RSR – 19 LMGTE Pro, Dries Vanthoor, Alvaro Parente, Maxime Martin
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Corvette Racing introduced up the rear of the category courtesy of Tommy Milner within the #64 Corvette C8.R and Nicky Catsburg within the #63 machine, which was crashed approaching the Porsche Curves by Antonio Garcia.
Porsche additionally dominated the GTE Am division, with Julien Andlauer posting a late 3m50.167s to go quickest within the #88 Dempsey Proton 911 – and fourth total among the many GT runners.
His effort was 0.6s faster than fellow Porsche ace Matteo Cairoli within the #56 Team Project 1 entry, whereas Matt Campbell (#77 Dempsey Proton) and Harry Tincknell (#99 Proton) accomplished a 911 clear sweep of the highest 4.
Action continues at 9:00pm native time for Hyperpole, through which the quickest six vehicles in every class from final evening’s Q1 session will battle for pole, instantly adopted by evening apply.
