Alpine’s Nicolas Lapierre has set the fastest time in the third practice session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, while Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Kazuki Nakajima found the barriers at Indianapolis late in the session.
Lapierre posted a best time of 03:26:594 in the closing stages of the two-hour session, knocking birthday boy Mike Conway off the top spot.
Conway, who turns 38 today, posted a time of 03:28:064 aboard the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid early in the session and remained top for the majority of running until Lapierre’s flyer
Brendon Hartley took third place in the #8 Toyota, 0.196s behind, but the car grabbed headlines late in the session when Kazuki Nakajima spun the car into the barriers at Indianapolis, damaging the rear of the car in the process.
The #36 Alpine A480-Gibson was third fastest in the hands of Nicolas Lapierre, with the Olivier pladriven #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH fourth ahead of the LMP2 leaders.
Nakajima’s crash was one of a number of notable incidents in a chaotic session that also includes two separate red flags for two different LMP2 crashes at the Dunlop Chicane.
First, Dwight Merriman lost control of the #17 IDEC Sport ORECA 07-Gibson and hit the barrier, and Juan Pablo Montoya had a similar accident later on in the #21 DragonSpeed ORECA.
In LMP2, JOTA’s Antonio Felix da Costa beat to the top spot in class.
Da Costa charged to the lead in class late on by posting a 03:30:507 in the #38 ORECA 07-Gibson, just over a tenth ahead of United Autosports’ Fabio Scherer.
Scherer set the Anglo-American squad’s best time with a 03:30:660 in the #22 ORECA 07-Gibson, just under half a second ahead of team-mate Paul di Resta in the #23 sister car.
Panis Racing took fourth place, ahead of the two Team WRT entries and the Risi Competizione ORECA in seventh and Montoya eighth for DragonSpeed despite his crash.
Porsche dominated proceedings in GTE Pro, with three cars from Weissach locking out the top three spots in class.
Kevin Estre was quickest, posting a 03:48:126 aboard the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 and well over a second clear of the #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche driven by Earl Bamber.
Third place went to Gianmaria Bruni’s #91 Porsche, ahead of the two AF Corse Ferraris in fourth and fifth and the sixth-placed HubAuto Racing Porsche.
The two Corvettes completed the class, with the #63 C8.R of Antonio Garcia spending time in the garage after Antonio Garcia lost control of the car and found the barriers at the entry of the Porsche Curves.
Finally, Julien Andlauer led a Porsche 1-2-3-4 in GTE Am as the Frenchman posted a 03:50:167 in the #88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19.
Matteo Cairoli was second for Team Project 1, ahead of the Dempsey-Proton sister car of Matt Campbell in third and a third Proton car, the #99 Porsche driven by Harry Tincknell, in fourth place.
Nicklas Nielsen set the fastest non-Porsche time in fifth place, driving the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
Track action at Le Mans resumes with the Hyperpole qualifying session at 21:00 pm local time.
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