Frederic Makowiecki posted a lap of 1m41.223s in the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport-entered 963 LMDh with fewer than 30 minutes left on the clock, dislodging the #94 Peugeot 9X8 that had led the way since the early part of the session.
The two factory Peugeot cars held the top spots for majority of the three-hour running, with a 1m41.260s lap from newly promoted former reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne putting the #94 car three tenths ahead of the sister entry crewed by Jean-Eric Vergne.
That was until both works Porsches switched to qualifying simulations at around the 2h20m mark, with first Kevin Estre in the #7 963 splitting the two Peugeots and then Makowiecki also going quicker than Vergne's #93 9X8.
Makowiecki would then find another two tenths on his next flying lap to end the session on top, beating Vandoorne’s earlier benchmark by just 0.037s.
The #6 Porsche held on to third with Estre, while Vergne ended up fourth in what was still a strong showing for the 9X8 that is due to receive a major upgrade at the second round of the WEC in Imola in April.
Fifth place went to the #2 Chip Ganassi-entered Cadillac courtesy of Sebastien Bourdais’ time of 1m41.652s, which put him just over a tenth clear of Nyck de Vries in the best of the works Toyotas, the #7 GR010 HYBRID.
The customer Jota squad that topped the first two legs of Prologue was only seventh in the third session, with Callum Ilott’s time of 1m42.083s around 1.5s slower than what he had managed in considerably cooler conditions on Monday evening.
Ilott, a previous member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, shaded the Italian marque’s #51 499P Hypercar entry driven to eighth place by factory driver James Calado.
Source: Autosport