Antonio Fuoco headed the third and final free practice session for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Qatar 1812 km season-opener.
The 60-minute FP3 session took place in marginally wet conditions at the Lusail International Circuit.
It was not enough to prompt teams to use the wet tyre compounds from Michelin (in Hypercar) and Goodyear (in LMGT3).
The rain gradually meant lap times got slower, unsurprisingly, as the Ferrari works Hypercars ended up heading the session over the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P privateer-entered Hypercar.
Little drama characterised the session with just Ben Keating’s off-track moment in a gravel trap for his #33 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R after 42 minutes into FP3.
A five-minute-long full course yellow allowed officials to retrieve him before the track returned to green flag running.
In the Hypercar category, Fuoco set a fastest lap time of 1:39.484 in the #50 Ferrari, followed by the #51 in P2 at just 0.081 seconds behind.
Antonio Giovinazzi set a 1:39.565 to put the #51 in second ahead of Robert Kubica’s 1:39.565 in the #83 Ferrari.
In fourth and fifth were both JOTA Cadillac V-Series.Rs, as Sebastien Bourdais drove a quickest time of 1:40.017 in the #38 ahead of the #12’s fastest time of 1:40.427 set by Alex Lynn.
Jean-Eric Vergne’s 1:40.653 lap time situated the #93 Peugeot 9X8 in sixth ahead of the sibling #94 Peugeot’s 1:40.947 by Stoffel Vandoorne.
Robin Frijns put the #20 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 in eighth place with a 1:41.593 as the #6 Porsche Penske 963 finished ninth after Matt Campbell’s 1:41.702.
The #20 WRT BMW rounded out the top-10 owing to Dries Vanthoor’s 1:41.755 lap time.
Gelael puts United Autosports fastest in LMGT3
Sean Gelael set a fastest lap time of 1:54.569 in the #95 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo.
He narrowly ousted the #78 ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3 driver Finn Gehristz by 0.092, who split the two McLarens with his 1:54.661.
The #59 McLaren claimed third place after Gregoire Saucy’s 1:54.738 time ahead of the fourth-placed #81 TF Sport Corvette.
Charlie Eastwood drove a quickest time of 1:55.018 for the #81 Corvette whilst Clemens Schmid rounded out the top-five for the #87 Lexus and his 1:55.215.
AF Corse’s #54 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 took sixth with credit to Francesco Castellacci’s 1:55.221 which put him ahead of Eduardo Barrichello’s 1:55.279 for Racing Spirit of LeMan’s #10 Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 EVO.
Rounding out the top-10 were the #21 AF Corse Ferrari (1:55.348), #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin (1:55.760) and the #46 WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 EVO (1:55.856).
See here for the full classification of FP3 results. Qualifying takes place from 17:00 local time or 14:00 UTC.
