Allan McNish ensured a practice clean sweep for Audi by setting the fastest time so far this weekend in the final Silverstone 6 Hours practice session.
As was the case in second practice, it was the R18 ultra of McNish and Tom Krsitensen which went fastest, with the Briton dropping down to a 1m43.628s late in the session. That came in the middle of a string of fastest laps for the No. 2 R18, although McNish's stint was halted eight minutes from the flag when he clashed with the No.71 AF Corse Ferrari.
Olivier Beretta seemed ready to cede the line to McNish only to then cut across the front of the Audi, leading to light contact.
Benoit Treluyer in the sister R18 e-tron reacted to McNish's charge with his own late rally, eventually getting down to a 1m44.882s, just over one second down. Toyota, too, responded to McNish's surge, with Nicolas Lapierre breaking into the 1m45s to put the lone TS030 Hybrid within 1.9sec of the ultimate pace. As the flag flew however Lapierre also hit trouble trying to pass a Ferrari, earning damage to his right rear as a result.
Nicolas Prost and Neel Jani's Rebellion Lola-Toyota meanwhile was the best of the privateer LMP1 entrants in fourth, little more than one second down the road.
The LMP2 lead changed hands several times as the session wore on, with the battle eventually decided when Alex Brundle broke into the 1m49s in the No. 42 Greaves Motorsport Nissan. That left Alex, father Martin and Lucas Ordonez just over one second clear of the No. 35 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan.
GTE Pro honors were settled in the final minute when Gianmaria Bruni went fastest in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari he shares with Giancarlo Fisichella. His effort demoted the sister JMW Motorsport Ferrari into second.
Aston Martin meanwhile locked out the top two spots in GTE Am, with the No. 99 Vantage finishing fractions faster than the sister No. 98 car.