Aston Martin stays fastest in third Lone Star Le Mans practice

Aston Martin Racing’s No. 007 Valkyrie remained the fastest car in the FIA WEC Hypercar pack in the final practice session of the weekend at COTA, building on its session-topping performance in FP2 yesterday.

Harry Tincknell was quickest again, with the Briton completing a 1m52.174s, the fastest lap of the weekend so far, on a set of fresh medium tires early in the session. It sets up the THOR team nicely ahead of qualifying this afternoon.

It was only just fast enough to claim the top spot and dethrone Mathieu Jaminet, though, after the Genesis factory driver briefly put the No. 19 GMR-001 at the top of the times with a 1m52.178s during his qualifying simulation.

"It's always nice to be up front. We have a good car for one lap, but we need to work on race pace, that's where we're missing a little bit to the others," Jaminet's teammate Dani Juncadella said post-session.

Four manufacturers held places in the top four, with the No. 38 JOTA Cadillac third, two tenths off, and the No. 51 Ferrari completing the quartet with a lap on a set of hard tires from Antonio Giovinazzi.

The No. 009 Aston Martin also showed pace, with the Valkyrie half a second off in fifth.

There were a couple of minor incidents during the hour-long session, the most significant being a clash between the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang and No. 50 Ferrari 499P.

After squeezing past, replays showed Nicklas Nielsen being rear-ended by the Mustang at the end of the lap, damaging the left-rear corner. The bodywork damage caused tire rubbing and a puncture shortly after, forcing the Dane in for repairs.

In LMGT3, AF Corse’s No. 21 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 led the way, with Francois Heriau getting his eye in early on and setting a 2m05.731s. The top three was completed by the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 and the No. 77 Proton Competition Mustang, which came within three tenths of the Ferrari’s time.

The top two cars in the championship standings, the No. 33 TF Sport Corvette and No. 92 The Bend Manthey Porsche, ended up 17th and 14th respectively, both with laps over a second off.

Qualifying is next and is set to get underway at 3:00pm local time.