Porsche had dominated the Prologue as well as the first two practice sessions for the 10-hour fixture at Qatar with its 963 LMDh, but Cadillac surged ahead in relatively hotter conditions on Friday morning.
Alex Lynn set a time of 1m40.667s in the Chip Ganassi-entered Cadillac V-Series.R at the beginning of 60-minute FP3, overhauling the #5 Porsche Penske car of Matt Campbell by 0.180s.
Lynn’s time was almost seven tenths slower than the fastest lap of the week, set by Kevin Estre in the #6 factory Porsche in much cooler temperatures on Thursday evening, which means the German marque remains on the front foot heading into qualifying later on Friday.
Third place in FP3 went to the customer Jota squad, with Callum Ilott setting a time of 1m41.121s in the #12 963 to edge out the second factory Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor by 0.035s.
Peugeot again looked rapid over a single lap at the Losail International Circuit, as new recruit Stoffel Vandoorne ended up a solid fifth in the best of the two works 9X8, just two hundredths of a second behind Vanthoor’s Porsche.
Ferrari was the fourth-quickest manufacturer in FP3, but it was the AF Corse squad that led the Italian marque’s charge in final practice.
Yifei Ye got down to a 1m41.212s in the #83 Ferrari 499P to finish sixth, just ahead of the lead works car of Alessandro Pier Guidi in seventh.
Source: Autosport