Practice is done, on to the competitive part of the weekend next.
Overall, FP3 has changed some of the headlines without changing the basic conclusion: Aston Martin, Alpine, Ferrari, Genesis and Toyota all show serious pace, but in slightly different ways and at different points in their programmes. Practice is practice.
Hypercar
Lap time averages and car ranking
Fp3 tightened things further. Aston Martin #007 now has the outright fastest lap and leads the Top 10 average, while Alpine #36 comes to the fore as the sample gets deeper, narrowly heading the longer-run measures from Ferrari #51. Genesis #19, Toyota and the second Alpine/Ferrari are all very much in the same conversation.
Note: these include deleted laps for track limits and pitlane violations.
The lap-spread chart really underlines how close most of the field is through the useful part of the distribution. For anyone still desperately hunting for sandbagging, congratulations: different teams are running different fuel loads, tyres, drivers and test programmes while preparing for a six-hour race. Shocking stuff.
Fastest laps set during some qualifying practice runs early in fp2 or, fp3 for the top times.
#8 Toyota was the fastest of the average in fp1, Alpine #36 after fp2 and fp3. #51 Ferrari had the fastest lap in fp1, #007 Aston in fp2 and fp3
Three of the four improved right at the start of FP3, when conditions and tyres were being used for performance work; Alpine did not need to. None of the new FP3 bests came from the middle of a long race simulation. The plots also show why practice times need context: the teams are alternating between push laps, tyre preparation, setup work and long-run lappage rather than all conducting the same test at the same time.
#36 Alpine: The most conventional endurance-style programme of the four, with all three drivers getting substantial running and several reasonably long stints. Astons fastest remained the lap from early FP2, and came during a useful run rather than a one-lap qualifying exercise. FP3 was mostly more race-preparation lappage rather than chasing another headline time.
#51 Ferrari: Much more fragmented, with frequent stops and obvious changes of programme. Giovinazzi set the car’s fastest very early in FP3, during a short performance-oriented run with slow preparation laps around the quick ones. Ferrari then moved through Pier Guidi and Calado in separate blocks. Of these four, it looks the least like simply pounding around on long runs.
#007 Aston Martin: A particularly clear programme in FP3: Tincknell set the overall fastest Hypercar lap about ten minutes into the session, in a short, prepared burst rather than a long stint. After that, Gamble did a much longer and more consistent run. Essentially: find the speed, then get on with the race work.
#8 Toyota: Toyota continued its very structured approach, generally giving each driver distinct blocks of running. Hirakawa set the fastest early in FP3, again in a relatively short sequence rather than buried in a long run. The rest of FP3 then returned to longer, steadier running with Buemi and Hartley.
Speed Trap
Aston Martin #007 remains the standout, both for peak speed and across repeated measurements, with Genesis #19 and Peugeot #94 also strong. The second Aston is consistently towards the front as well.
Toyota is interesting: very strong among its quickest trap passes but much less remarkable deeper into the sample, while Alpine achieves excellent lap pace without especially impressive trap numbers. BMW remains towards the bottom on sustained speed.
As ever, tow, lift-and-coast, traffic and deployment make the speed trap useful context rather than a dyno sheet.
Number of laps completed
BMW has emphatically won the practice lappery championship, with #15 completing the most laps and #20 second. Cadillac #12 and Toyota #8 also amassed plenty of lappage.
At the other end, Alpine #35 did the least running yet remains very competitive, another useful warning against assuming lap count and performance programme are the same thing.
Sectors
No manufacturer owns the lap. Peugeot #94 leads Sector 1, Aston Martin #007 Sector 2 and Ferrari #51 Sector 3.
Alpine #36 is particularly convincing because it sits close to the front in all three sectors, while both Aston Martins also show broad strength. Ferrari is especially good in Sector 3, and Toyota remains competitive across the lap. The picture is one of different strengths rather than one car being obviously superior everywhere.
Drivers
Antonio Giovinazzi has been particularly strong on repeated quick laps, while Marco Sørensen leads the short-run average and has also done the most driver lappage. Mathieu Jaminet now owns one of the outright quickest laps and is strongest over the longer driver sample, making the #19 Genesis particularly interesting.
Kamui Kobayashi, Robert Kubica, Charles Milesi, Jack Aitken and Victor Martins also feature strongly near the front.
LMGT3
Lap time averages and car ranking
The #61 Mercedes-AMG is the standout on the repeated-lap measures, leading all three averages, with the #27 Aston Martin close behind and still holding the outright fastest lap. The #10 McLaren and #21 Ferrari form the next group, followed by the second McLaren, Lexus and the two Fords.
As ever with LMGT3, the averages need more caution than Hypercar: different cars have spent very different proportions of practice in the hands of Bronze, Silver and professional drivers. It is therefore partly a measure of who did the lappage, not simply which car is quickest.
Fastest laps are set in a mix of sessions due to the nature of the class and when the different drivers take to the track.
Speed Trap
Ford #88 remains the clear repeated-speed leader, with #77 also very strong. Aston #27 has the highest single trap speed, while McLaren and Lexus are consistently towards the quicker end.
Porsche remains conspicuously slow through the trap despite respectable overall pace. Once again, speed-trap ranking and lap-time ranking are not the same thing.
Lappery
The #92 Porsche wins the practice lappery contest, with #91 and Ford #77 close behind. Aston #27, BMW #32 and Ford #88 also accumulated substantial mileage.
The #34 Corvette did the least running, while both McLaren #58 and Lexus #78 were towards the lighter end.
Sectors
Mercedes #61 looks particularly convincing, topping S1 and S3 and sitting second in S2. Aston #27 leads S2 and is also near the front elsewhere, so the two cars heading the averages have underlying sector pace to support it.
McLaren #10 is strong in S2 and S3, while Ferrari, Ford and Lexus all show strengths without matching the Mercedes/Aston consistency across the entire lap.
Drivers
The driver table is particularly useful in LMGT3 because it helps separate car performance from who happened to be driving it.
The #61 Mercedes has perhaps the most interesting driver picture. Rui Andrade (Silver) leads the Top-10 average, while Maxime Martin (Platinum) leads the shorter Top-5 measure. That helps explain why the car looks so strong overall.
Zacharie Robichon (Silver) remains the outright fastest LMGT3 driver and is strongest over the deeper 20-lap sample, while his #27 team-mate Ian James (Bronze) has also shown very respectable pace. Thomas Fleming (Silver) is another standout in the #10 McLaren.
There are some particularly noteworthy non-Platinum performances further down too: François Hérau (Bronze) has been very quick in the #21 Ferrari, Eric Powell (Bronze) produced excellent outright pace in the #77 Ford, and Gray Newell (Bronze) combined a strong lap with the most driver lappage.
That matters for the race. The car averages tell part of the story, but if one of these particularly strong Platinum, Gold or Silver drivers is in the car for the closing stages, the competitive order could look rather different from the whole-practice averages.
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