After 25 minutes of running, Alex Lynn took the lead in the factory No. 2 Chip Ganassi Cadillac V Series.R with a time of 1 minute 49.512 seconds, ahead of Miguel Molina’s No. 50 Ferrari.
Although Lin finished the session with a nearly 0.5 second lead, he was nearly 3 seconds slower than the time set by Kamui Kobayashi in cool conditions in the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid in FP2.
Toyota slowed considerably during the short 60-minute third practice on Friday afternoon, and Brendon Hartley, the best of the two GR010 Hybrids, was 2.2 seconds slower in 8th place, likely due to differences in driving plans. It ended with that.
Kobayashi’s teammate Jose María López finished just behind the championship-leading sister car heading into Saturday’s finale, gaining another half a second over the No. 7 Toyota.
With Toyota unusually far behind, the Proton Competition finished third thanks to an impressive time of 1 minute 50.256 seconds from Gianmarina Bruni, driving the team’s sole customer Porsche.
After Calado sustained minor damage in an incident with Thomas Flohr’s No. 54 Ferrari GTE Am, Bruni led the second of his two Ferraris, James Calado’s No. 51 499P, by just under two-tenths of a second. I beat it by a difference.
In fifth place was the No. 94 Peugeot of Nico Muller, who returned to WEC this weekend after a temporary absence due to injury and recorded a time of 1 minute 50.526 seconds.
The two Porsche factory machines occupied sixth and seventh place, with Andre Lotterer leading the way in the No. 6 963 LMDh, ahead of its sister car driven by Frederic Makowiecki.
JOTA customer Porsche, with Will Stevens at the wheel, finished 10th behind the two Toyotas, while Jean-Eric Vergne’s No. 93 Peugeot was more than three seconds behind in 11th place.
The Vanwall moved up again in 12th place, with Esteban Guerrelli just five seconds off the pace of Lynn in the chart-topping Cadillac.
United Autosports has completed a practice sweep for the LMP2 class, and this time it was the British and American team’s #23 ORECA 07 that took the top time.
IndyCar driver Tom Blomqvist set a time of 1 minute 53.661 seconds in the winning car at Portimao, giving him a 0.028 second lead over Bent Viscard’s No. 9 Prema Oreca at the end of 60 minutes. .
JOTA took third place with a time of 1 minute 53.892 seconds from Pietro Fittipaldi, while the No. 22 United Autosport car, led by Filipe Albuquerque in both sessions on Friday, finished 4th, 0.307 seconds behind. The Portuguese driver was back behind the wheel. .
In GTE Am, Matteo Cairoli set the pace for the #56 Project 1 AO Porsche 911 RSR-19. Teammate Gunnar Janet crashed in FP2 on Thursday and had to rebuild overnight.
Cairoli lapped the circuit in 1 minute 58.214 seconds, leading the No. 83 Richard Mille Ferrari 488 GTE by an astonishing 1.363 seconds.
The No. 54 Ferrari, operated by AF Corse under its own name, was third with Davide Rigon setting the fastest time, a further 10 seconds behind.