Final practice for the Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race at Circuit of The Americas began under the cover of clouds with the coolest conditions we’ve seen all weekend. Alex Lynn in the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R finished with the fastest time of the weekend so far.
In the first ten minutes, a flurry of fast times rolled in, beginning when Kamui Kobayashi in the No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid set the fastest time of the weekend at that time, a 1m51.533s.
A minute later, Lynn would come through in the blue Cadillac with a 1m51.471s to take and keep the top spot in Hypercar.
It sets up the tantalizing prospect of the American marque taking pole position for its home race, but the leaderboard was very close and much could still change once qualifying gets underway.
“Yesterday, on theoretical lap time, we were P1 as well,” Lynn said. “I think we’re very competitive on long run as well as short runs. I think we’ve got the car to get a good result and now we just have to stay focused and bank that result.”
Antonio Fuoco was second-fastest in the No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P with a 1m51.511s, and Kobayashi’s best lap stood as the third-fastest.
Fourth was Robert Kubica in the yellow No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari, with Sebastien Buemi in the No. 8 Toyota in fifth.
Norman Nato’s No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 was the fastest of his marque in sixth, ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi in the No. 51 Ferrari and Mick Schumacher in the No. 36 Alpine Endurance Team A424 in eighth.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
Just 0.324s covered the top eight — 0.383s covered the top ten – and less than two seconds covered the entire 18-car Hypercar field.
Hypercar Championship leader Kevin Estre sat just outside the top ten, 11th in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, hampered by a damper problem.
Meanwhile, in LMGT3, Corvettes dominated FP3 after leading FP2 on Friday. Daniel Juncadella again set the fastest time in the No. 82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R (2m05.178s) during the final moments, 0.2s faster than the sister car, the No. 82 of Charlie Eastwood (2m05.351s).
The No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 driven by Davide Rigon was third fastest, some 0.4s behind the fastest Corvette (2m05.542s). Fourth fastest was the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo (2m05.549s).
Further down the order the LMGT3 Championship leading car, the No. 92 Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R, had another quiet run. Klaus Bachler’s best time landed him 10th in class (2m06.656s).
Elsewhere in the class, Sean Gelael received a 5m stop-and-go penalty for constant abuse of track limits during Friday’s second free practice session. His car, the No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3, was the slowest of the LMGT3s Saturday morning (2m06.565s).
The session was drama-free, otherwise, even when accounting for a brief yellow for debris on track.
NEXT UP: Qualifying begins Saturday at 3:00 p.m. CT.
