Dries Vanthoor catapulted BMW M Team WRT to the top in third practice for the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours with a blistering lap of 3m23.302s in the final minutes of a dramatic FP3 that was interrupted by a red flag.
Vanthoor‘s last-gasp effort put the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 0.423 seconds ahead of Victor Martins in the No. 36 Alpine A424, marking an unexpected breakthrough for the Bavarian marque.
Cadillac dominated the better part of FP3 with all three of its machines featuring near the top of the timing screens. The No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing entry driven by Filipe Albuquerque briefly went quickest before the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA car of Norman Nato surged to the top with a 3m24.058.
However, the session was red flagged with 25 minutes to go by an incident involving Daniel Schneider who crashed the No. 222 United Autosports Oreca into the Ford Chicane, sustaining significant damage to the front-left.
The Brazilian driver was able to bring the hobbling car back into the pits allowing the session to resume shortly afterwards, but the incident had already interrupted the flow of qualifying simulations.
After the session went back to green, a flurry of green sectors lit up across the timing screens as teams completed their qualifying simulations, and Earl Bamber put the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA into second place to make it a Cadillac 1-2-3.
However, BMW would spoil that all-American party in the dying moments of the afternoon spectacle, with both of its M Hybrid V8s charging into second and third place on the leaderboard.
Dries Vanthoor, at the wheel of the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 split the two Cadillacs on his first flying lap, before reeling off a 3:23.302 flyer on his final tour that ultimately stood as the session benchmark.
At the same time, Victor Martins moved the No. 36 Alpine A424 up to second with less than three minutes remaining, leaving the No. 12 Cadillac in third place as Will Stevens tried to respond with a late effort of his own but ultimately ended up half a second off the pace.
Sheldon van der Linde backed up Vanthoor’s performance with fourth place in the No. 20 BMW, while Mathys Jaubert propelled newcomer Genesis to fifth place in the No. 17 Genesis GMR-001.
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The two remaining Cadillacs cars finished sixth and eighth, with Earl Bamber’s No. 38 Jota Cadillac fractionally faster than the No. 101 WTR of Filipe Albuquerque, as the No. 35 Alpine of Charles Milesi split the duo in seventh.
Antonio Giovinazzi could only manage ninth in the No. 51 Ferrari 499P, 1.296s down on BMW’s benchmark, while Paul-Loup Chatin completed the top 10 aboard the No. 19 Genesis GMR-001.
In the LMP2 category, the competition proved incredibly close with just one thousandth of a second separating the No. 29 Forestier Racing by Panis Oreca of Oliver Gray and the No. 30 Duqueine Team entry driven by Julien Andlauer.
The Panis Oreca ended up at the top of the Le Mans FP3 leaderboard with Gray’s early benchmark of 3m34.252s despite Louis Rousset’s clash with the No. 009 Aston Martin Valkyrie and an off-track moment for Esteban Masson in the final hour.
The two drivers ended up more than two tenths clear of the rest of the LMP2 pack, led by Reshad de Gerus in the No. 343 Inter Europol.
In the LMGT3 class, Heart of Racing beat WRT to the top spot with Eduardo Barrichello leading the way with a 3m53.996s in the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 after a competitive session that saw multiple cars fight for the lead.
Augusto Farfus held on to second in the No. 32 BMW M4 GT3, with Clemens Schmid’s earlier benchmark slotting the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F into third place. The No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari and the sister No. 78 ASP Lexus completed the top five.
