Porsche continued to lead the way in Shanghai, with Brendon Hartley quickest in Saturday’s Free Practice 3.
The Kiwi reeled off a best lap of 1:42/799 early in the 60-minute session, outpacing the sister No. 18 Porsche 919 Hybrid by a considerable 1.120 seconds.
The pair of Audi R18 e-tron quattros were third and fourth, respectively, followed by the two Toyota TS040 Hybrids, which again brought up the rear.
G-Drive Racing topped the time charts in LMP2, with Pipo Derani laying down a 1:52.453 in the No. 28 Ligier JS P2 Nissan to outpace the competition by more than 1.5 seconds.
The No. 42 Strakka Racing Gibson 015S Nissan and No. 47 KCMG Oreca 05 Nissan completed the top-three in class.
AF Corse (GTE-Pro) and SMP Racing (GTE-Am) led the production-based ranks.
The session saw a number of incidents, most notably a crash for the LMP2 championship-leading No. 26 G-Drive Ligier of Julien Canal, who spun and hit the wall to bring out an early Full Course Yellow. The car did not rejoin.
Contact between the No. 2 Toyota of Alex Wurz and the No. 88 Abu Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR, meanwhile, resulted in a lengthy trip to the garage for the Toyota, which did eventually return to action.
There was also an incident between the No. 4 ByKolles CLM P1/01 AER and the No. 92 Porsche, with both drivers having been reported to Race Control.
Qualifying gets underway at 1:30 p.m. local time.
RESULTS: Free Practice 3
