The Frenchman logged a 2m04.125s aboard his #6 Penske Porsche Motorsport 963 LMDh in the early minutes and, as he had done in Thursday’s second practice, was never headed for the remainder of the hour-long session.
Estre usurped the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar that had briefly headed the times in James Calado’s hands, with the Briton’s time ending up 0.215s shy.
Mikkel Jensen split the two works Ferraris aboard the leading Peugeot 9X8 LMH, slotting into third place on the second outing for the much-changed 2024 spec machine ahead of FP1 benchmark Antonio Fuoco in the #50 499P.
Dries Vanthoor punched in the fifth-fastest time in the best of the WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh machines, lapping 0.008s quicker than the leading Toyota GR010 LMH driven by defending Spa winner Kamui Kobayashi.
Brendon Hartley was seventh in the sister #8 Toyota to move ahead of Charles Milesi in the leading Alpine A424 LMDh, while Robin Frijns (BMW) and Callum Ilott (Jota Porsche) completed the top 10 ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session.
Several Hypercar entrants had incident-afflicted runs, with Oliver Rasmussen damaging the floor and bodywork of his #38 Jota Porsche after running wide at Blanchimont and bouncing over the grass and gravel.
Earl Bamber spun his Chip Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh into the gravel at Les Combes in the closing minutes, without doing any damage, while the customer AF Corse-run #83 Ferrari completed the fewest laps of any entrant after spending over half an hour in the garage addressing a suspected electrical problem.
Porsche tops LMGT3 class
In the LMGT3 class, points leader Alexander Malykhin moved to the head of the times late in the session aboard his Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R.
The UK-based Belarusian posted a 2m20.947s lap that proved 0.261s quicker than the Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan.
Rahel Frey set the car’s best lap on her return to the WEC, replacing Doriane Pin who is on Formula Regional European by Alpine duty at Hockenheim.
Corvette factory driver Daniel Juncadella moved into third in the closing stages aboard the #82 TF Sport-run Z06 GT3.R that had earlier caused a full course yellow when Hiroshi Koizumi rotated into the Les Combes gravel.
Thomas Flohr was fourth in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, ahead of the second Manthey-run Porsche of Yasser Shahin.