Headlines from FP3 at the Rolex 6 Hours of Sao Paulo

Hypercar

• The #36 Alpine headed the field in the final free practice session ahead of the all-important qualifying period this afternoon for Sunday’s Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo
• Victor Martins continued his impressive debut season in FIA WEC by setting the fastest time of the weekend so far, with a peak effort of 1m24.038s in the A424 Hypercar he shares with Jules Gounon and Frédéric Makowiecki
• That lap by Martins proved to be 0.165s quicker than the #19 Genesis Magma Racing GMR-001 piloted by Paul-Loup Chatin, Daniel Juncadella and Mathieu Jaminet as the South Korean manufacturer continued its strong form in Brazil
• Aston Martin THOR Team’s Valkyrie took third position as the #007 British Racing Green prototype again proved to be at the sharp end of the times with Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble, one of the three duos in the Hypercar field
• Genesis impressively put both of its entries inside the top four as the #17 GMR-001 crewed by local ace ‘Pipo’ Derani, André Lotterer and Mathys Jaubert lapped just 0.192s shy of the pace-setting sister car
• The quickest Ferrari in the session was the #50 499P in fifth, as Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina proved that the Prancing Horse could challenge for pole position later today
• Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA was next up with the #38 V-Series.R of Earl Bamber, Sébastien Bourdais and Jack Aitken, making it five different manufacturers inside the top six spots, all blanketed by a mere 0.251s
• The #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P ended the session in seventh place ahead of the #35 Alpine A424
• Paul di Resta in the #93 Team Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 was hit by Parker Thompson in the #69 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo  at Junção corner; the Scot spun, but was able to resume without damage
• There were similarly issues for the sister Peugeot, as Malthe Jakobsen was obliged to spend most of the session in the pits due to a technical problem; once the Dane took to the circuit, he lapped quickly enough to secure ninth position
• Completing the top ten in FP3 was the #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie shared by Alex Riberas and Marco Sørensen
• A Full Course Yellow was thrown 35 minutes in for debris on-track at Turn 10 – the only caution of another clean session

LMGT3

• Rui Andrade topped the LMGT3 class times in the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG entry, peaking on a best lap of 1m34.283s
• That effort by the Angolan was remarkably equalled by the #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus driven by Clemens Schmid, as a rare dead-heat scenario played out in the ultra-competitive production-based category – but with Andrade setting the time first, it was the Mercedes that headed the timing screens
• Simon Mann set a 1m34.416s in the #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari to ensure the Maranello-based marque maintained its eye-catching pace, while the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang posted the fourth-fastest lap in the hands of Giammarco Levorato
• Rounding out the top six were the #69 Team WRT BMW M4 and #10 Garage 59 McLaren
• It was a busy session for the #69 BMW, as Anthony McIntosh spun at Turn 10 and lightly tapped the tyre wall with the rear wing but was able to continue
• The #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette sat out the first five minutes as it carried over a penalty from FP2 yesterday for contact with the #93 Team Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 Hypercar
• The championship-leading #33 TF Sport Corvette of Ben Keating, Jonny Edgar and Nicolás Varrone brought up the rear in 18th position in-class

Check out the full FP3 lap times.

Qualifying for Sunday’s Rolex 6 Hours de São Paulo will get underway at 14:30 local time today (GMT-3).

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