In cool but dry and sunny conditions, Marc Lieb set a best lap of 1m36.036 in the No.18 Porsche 919 Hybrid. The local ace headed the sister No.17 Porsche 919, which in the hands of Mark Webber stopped the clocks at 1m36.647s.

It wasn’t a trouble free session for Porsche though, as the No.18 Porsche, driven by Romain Dumas at the time, was in collision with the No.63 AF Corse Ferrari of Francois Perrodo at turn two. Both cars suffered minor damage and were forced to pit after the incident, which was reported to the stewards.

Audi Sport Team Joest finished the session third and fourth although their quickest car, the No.8 Audi R18 etron-quattro, driven by Lucas Di Grassi, was 0.999s away from the ultimate pace set by Lieb’s Porsche 919 Hybrid.

Marcel Fassler placed the No.7 Audi R18 fourth on a 1m37.109s lap. The Swiss driver’s stint at the wheel included a harmless spin at turn two halfway through the session.

Toyota Racing continued to annex the fifth and sixth positions with the No1 reigning champion car heading the No.2 Toyota TS 040 machine by just over a second. Sebastien Buemi and Alex Wurz respectively set the times for Toyota this morning.

Rebellion Racing headed LMP2 with the No.13 heading the similar No.12 Rebellion R-One-AER. It was a troubled session though for the Anglo-Swiss squad as both Daniel Abt and Alexander Imperatori briefly stopped on the track with technical issues. The ByKolles CLM P1/01 saw a major improvement from yesterday, with Pierre Kaffer setting a time just a few tenths away from the Rebellion pair.

LMP2 saw a change at the head of the field with the No.42 Strakka Gibson finishing the session in P1 with Jonny Kane claiming a 1m45.720s lap. This was just under a tenth of a second faster than Nick Tandy’s late lap in the No.47 KCMG ORECA 05-Nissan. WEC rookie Pipo Derani’s early session time of   was good enough for third quickest.

Ferrari headed the LMGTE Pro class with reigning champion Gianmaria Bruni completing a 1m54.331s lap in the dying moments of the session in the No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia.

James Calado driving the No.71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia placed second in the LMGTE Pro class. The British racer bettered the No.99 Aston Martin time set by Alex MacDowell in the last five minutes of the 60-minute session

The LMGTE Am category was headed by the Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR driven by Le Mans winner Earl Bamber. He set a time one second ahead of the competition on a 1m55.288s.

LMGTE Am title leaders – the No.98 Aston Martin crew of Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy suffered a spectacular puncture in the latter stages of the session.

Qualifying will get underway at 14.00 local time with two 20-minute sessions split between LMGTE Pro/Am and the LMP1/2 classes.

CLICK HERE for the results of Free Practice 3