After a slightly shortened free practice session, Toyota still ran quickest, though SMP Racing stopped the Japanese team’s clean sweep.
Teams were greeted by a grey Silverstone this morning as free practice got underway. Toyota remained the fastest team on the circuit with the #8 car of Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso setting the pace. Alonso’s 1:37.677 lap time put the #8 crew almost two seconds ahead of their nearest rivals which, for a change, wasn’t a Toyota. Unlike yesterday’s sessions, the #7 Toyota finished FP3 fourth fastest, behind the two SMP Racing machines. Egor Orudzhev and Stephane Sarrazin stuck the #17 BR1 into second position with the #11 crew of Jenson Button, Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov behind them in third. The #1 Rebellion and #4 ByKolles both took to the track this morning after skipping FP2 yesterday afternoon.
#6hSilverstone FP3
LMP1: @alo_oficial quickest for @Toyota_Hybrid in final Free Practice session. Spaniard sets 1m37.677s in No.8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID. #WEC pic.twitter.com/fBhhJYhwqy
— WEC (@FIAWEC) August 18, 2018
In LMP2, TDS Racing found themselves repeating their FP1 achievements, running fastest in the session. Loic Duval, Francois Perrodo and Mathieu Vaxivierre finished on a 1:44.247, six tenths ahead of the two Jackie Chan DC Racing Orecas – the Mighty 38 finishing ahead of the Fortune Cat 37.
It’s all about Ford once again in GTE Pro as the #67 and #66 finished quickest – the only GTE Pro cars in the 1:55s. Behind them in third was the #95 ‘Dane Train’ Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen. It may only be practice, but it’s fantastic to see an Aston Martin running this far up the field. The #71 Ferrari of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon finished fourth fastest, a pretty good result for the Italian team. BMW appear to have some ground to make up, finishing 7th and 9th – though this is only practice, it could all change come qualifying!
Aston Martin’s GTE Am effort ended the session quickest, improving on their FP2 effort, thanks to a 1:58.460 from Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda. The #98 AMR finished ahead of Motoaki Ishikawa, Olivier Beretta and Eddie Cheever in the #70 MR Racing Ferrari, and the championship-leading #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche.
Qualifying for the GTE classes begins at 12.00.
