Jack Aitken topped the final free practice session held after dark as part of the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s 12 Hours of Sebring.
The Action Express Racing driver put his #31 Cadillac V-Series.R GTP to the top of the timesheet ahead of the two Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06s.
The final 90-minute session took place in the evening-night time to provide teams an opportunity to prepare for the final hours in the race, which will be after dark.
Various incidents across three red flags characterised the third free practice session ahead of the 73rd running of the Sebring 12 Hours on Saturday 15 March.
First of all, after the #19 van de Steur Aston Martin Vantage GT3 went off-course at Turn 5, as did the #74 Riley Oreca 07 LMP2, the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 spun at Turn 5 which caused the first red flag.
Conquest Racing, like the #45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 in FP1, will consequently lose their fastest qualifying lap time after having caused the red flag.
Debris between Turns 1 and 3 was behind the second red flag, although this was brief in duration as the circuit returned to green flag running again.
Later on, Aaron Telitz went off-course at Turn 3 in his #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 (GTD Pro) thus giving reason for a third red flag.
Aitken fastest, Winward Racing tops GT order
Aitken ended up at the top with a fastest lap time of 1:49.125 as he was followed by Nick Yelloly’s #93 Acura (1:49.250) and Tom Blomqvist’s #60 Acura (1:49.343).
Nick Tandy claimed fourth place in the #7 Porsche Penske 963 GTP entrant after his 1:49.394 lap time, as Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top-five in the #24 RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 (1:49.498).
Looking to the LMP2 category, the #11 TDS Racing team were fastest once again after FP2 with Mikkel Jensen’s 1:50.496 having topped the 12-car field of Oreca 07s.
Fellow Peugeot Hypercar driver Paul di Resta put the #22 United Autosports USA Oreca in second position after his 1:51.140, followed by Nicklas Nielsen in the #88 AF Corse Oreca.
Nielsen set a 1:51.275 ahead of Tom Dillmann’s #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca which closed out the top-five with a 1:51.400.
Reigning GTD champions Winward Racing and their driver Phillip Ellis were quickest in the combined GT order.
Ellis completed a 2:00.538 in his #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 ahead of AO Racing’s GTD Pro #77 ‘Rexy’ Porsche 911 GT3.R and Laurin Heinrich’s 2:00.538.
Mercedes-AMG works driver Maximilian Goetz put the other #32 Korthoff Competition Mercedes-AMG in third overall, second in GTD, after his 2:00.974 lap time.
Antonio Garcia finished in fourth place overall, second in GTD Pro, for the #3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R with his 2:00.979.
Nico Varrone in the other #4 Corvette secured fifth overall in the combined GT classification after he drove a 2:00.982.
See here for the full results from FP3. Qualifying will commence on Friday 14 March at 11:25 local time or 15.25 UTC.
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