Paul di Resta has set the quickest time in final practice for the Eight Hours of Portimao, where the margins at the top of the field remain slim.
Di Resta managed to outpace the Hypercar runners by posting a 01:31:628 in the #22 ORECA 07-Gibson, which was good enough to go fastest overall.
It was only barely enough to hold off Alpine’s Nicolas Lapierre, whose effort of 01:31:552 put the #36 Alpine A480-Gibson just 0.024 behind.
Lapierre was just over a tenth quicker than the #38 JOTA ORECA 07-Gibson of Antonio Felix da Costa in third.
After being somewhat off the pace in the opening two sessions in Portugal, Glickenhaus finally seemed to show some of its real pace in the dying minutes of the final session.
Richard Westbrook put down a 01:31:915 in the #709 007 LMH, which was by far the car’s quickest time so far this weekend. It was just 0.288s off Di Resta’s time and quicker than both Toyota GR010 Hybrids.
Sebastien Buemi responded with a late flyer of his own to post a 01:31:974 in the #8 Toyota, enough to go third in class and fifth overall. The #7 Toyota was slightly further down the order, behind the top five in LMP2.
That top five consisted of Alex Brundle third in the #34 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07-Gibson, the #29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA in fourth and Team WRT fifth.
The top eight in LMP2 was complete by DragonSpeed, the second JOTA Car and Realteam Racing.
In GTE Pro, Porsche outpaced Ferrari by going one-two ahead of qualifying. Kevin Estre posted a 01:38:082 in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 to top the session, with the sister car in tow. The two Ferraris brought up the rear in class.
Matteo Cairoli continued to show his pace in GTE Am, as he posted a 01:39:186 in the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR-19 to go fastest in class ahead of Matt Campbell’s #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 and the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
Qualifying for the Eight Hours of Portimao starts at 18:00 local time.
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