With an hour of the 90min session to go it was a Cadillac 1-2-3-4, with JDC Miller MotorSports again showing well, with Tristan Vautier leading the field with a 70.003sec lap of the 2.254-mile Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, ahead of the two Ganassi entries, split by Mike Conway in the Action Express Racing entry.
Then Earl Bamber cracked the 70sec barrier in the #02 Ganassi Cadillac DPi-V.R to move to the top of the times with his 29th lap, setting the fastest times in sectors 1 and 2.
His teammate was less fortunate, however. Renger van der Zande on an out lap struck the curb a Turn 7 and the #01’s left-front wheel came off, sending the Cadillac off course.
When action resumed, Olivier Pla took over the #31 AXR car and improved its time yet remained third… but only until van der Zande took to the track once more and claimed third, 0.288sec off teammate Bamber. Then Pipo Derani improved for AXR but missed out by a couple of hundredths of displacing van der Zande.
Kamui Kobayashi in the extra AXR Caddy made it a Cadillac 1-2-3-4-5, with a time less than four-tenths slower than Bamber’s benchmark. That said, the Acura of Meyer Shank Racing was less than half a second behind the top time, and Ricky Taylor was 0.59sec down.
After Scott Huffaker shunted his PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports #52 Oreca in morning practice, the car got only four shakedown laps in the afternoon practice, but this evening the impressive Mikkel Jensen picked up like nothing happened to clock a 71.407sec on his 14th lap to move to the top of the LMP2 times by 0.125sec ahead of Louis Deletraz in the Tower Motorsports entry.
Deletraz then went top ahead of Ryan Dalziel’s Era Motorsport machine and Jensen, who had ceded his seat to Huffaker. Deletraz’s top LMP2 time was only 0.14sec off the back of the DPi times and 0.733sec behind Bamber.
Gabby Chaves was fastest in the LMP3 class in the Andretti Autosport machine by mere hundredths ahead of Felipe Fraga’s Riley Motorsports entry, Colin Braun of CORE Autosport and Nolan Siegel of Jr III.
Aaron Telitz led GTD in the pro-am Lexus RC F, setting a 1min19.632sec, around 0.18sec faster than Bryan Sellers in the Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 with Toni Vilander only 0.08sec further back. Seb Priaulx was fourth fastest in Inception Racing’s McLaren 720S, just ahead of Robby Foley in the Turner Motorsport BMW M4.
Jack Hawksworth looked set to top GTD Pro in the other Lexus, but a late effort by James Calado sprung the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 to the top by 0.2sec, while Tom Gamble’s Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage was third in class until the dying minutes when Maximilian Goetz went third fastest in the WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3.
Petit Le Mans - FP3 results:
| Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 02 |
 Earl Bamber  Alex Lynn  Ryan Hunter-Reay |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'09.880 | |
| 2 | 5 |
 Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'10.003 | 0.123 |
| 3 | 01 |
 Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'10.162 | 0.282 |
| 4 | 31 |
Olivier Pla  Pipo Derani Mike Conway |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'10.182 | 0.302 |
| 5 | 48 |
 Mike Rockenfeller  Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'10.261 | 0.381 |
| 6 | 60 |
Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist Helio Castroneves |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'10.306 | 0.426 |
| 7 | 10 |
Ricky Taylor  Filipe Albuquerque Brendon Hartley |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'10.470 | 0.590 |
| 8 | 8 |
 John Farano  Louis Deletraz Rui Andrade |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'10.613 | 0.733 |
| 9 | 18 |
Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel Christian Rasmussen |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'11.352 | 1.472 |
| 10 | 52 |
Ben Keating  Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'11.407 | 1.527 |
| 11 | 81 |
 Henrik Hedman  Juan Pablo Montoya Sebastian Montoya |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'11.663 | 1.783 |
| 12 | 11 |
Steven Thomas Josh Pierson Tristan Nunez |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'11.902 | 2.022 |
| 13 | 20 |
Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'12.308 | 2.428 |
| 14 | 36 |
Jarett Andretti Gabby Chaves Josh Burdon |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'16.028 | 6.148 |
| 15 | 74 |
Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'16.064 | 6.184 |
| 16 | 54 |
Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'16.137 | 6.257 |
| 17 | 30 |
Ari Balogh Garett Grist Nolan Siegel |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'16.138 | 6.258 |
| 18 | 33 |
Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Nicolas Pino |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'16.643 | 6.763 |
| 19 | 13 |
Orey Fidani Matthew Bell Lars Kern |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 1'17.333 | 7.453 |
| 20 | 38 |
Daniel Goldburg  Cameron Shields Tyler Maxson |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'17.625 | 7.745 |
| 21 | 76 |
Anthony Mantella Kyle Marcelli Josh Sarchet |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 1'17.909 | 8.029 |
| 22 | 12 |
Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'19.632 | 9.752 |
| 23 | 62 |
Daniel Serra  Davide Rigon James Calado |
GTD PRO | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'19.649 | 9.769 |
| 24 | 1 |
Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Erik Johansson |
GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'19.815 | 9.935 |
| 25 | 14 |
Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood |
GTD PRO | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'19.867 | 9.987 |
| 26 | 21 |
Simon Mann  Luis Perez Companc  Toni Vilander |
GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'19.895 | 10.015 |
| 27 | 79 |
Maximilian Buhk Mikael Grenier Maximillian Goetz |
GTD PRO | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 1'19.926 | 10.046 |
| 28 | 23 |
Ross Gunn  Alex Riberas Tom Gamble |
GTD PRO | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'19.943 | 10.063 |
| 29 | 70 |
Brendan Iribe  Jordan Lee Pepper Sebastian Priaulx |
GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1'19.963 | 10.083 |
| 30 | 96 |
Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan |
GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'20.000 | 10.120 |
| 31 | 66 |
Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Mario Farnbacher |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'20.030 | 10.150 |
| 32 | 3 |
Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg |
GTD PRO | Corvette C8.R GTD | 1'20.040 | 10.160 |
| 33 | 57 |
Russell Ward Philip Ellis Marvin Dienst |
GTD | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 1'20.052 | 10.172 |
| 34 | 9 |
Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr |
GTD PRO | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'20.085 | 10.205 |
| 35 | 27 |
Roman De Angelis  Maxime Martin Ian James |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'20.085 | 10.205 |
| 36 | 25 |
Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Jesse Krohn |
GTD PRO | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'20.180 | 10.300 |
| 37 | 39 |
Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Jeff Westphal |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'20.272 | 10.392 |
| 38 | 42 |
Jaden Conwright Marco Holzer Don Yount |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'20.305 | 10.425 |
| 39 | 16 |
Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'20.417 | 10.537 |
| 40 | 47 |
Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Ulysse De |
GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'20.520 | 10.640 |
| 41 | 44 |
John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'21.032 | 11.152 |
| 42 | 32 |
Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer Dirk Muller |
GTD | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 1'21.276 | 11.396 |
| 43 | 99 |
Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Nicholas Boulle |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'21.883 | 12.003 |
| View full results | ||||||
