Anthoine Hubert headed into the lunch break of GP3 Series testing at Paul Ricard quickest from team-mate Callum Ilott.
Unlike yesterday morning, the drivers and team were greeted by dry conditions meaning they were able to get their running underway immediately.
The four Trident cars were the first out, with American Ryan Tveter leading the quartet.
Ilott, Hubert and Nikita Mazepin joined the action and the ART Grand Prix trio set about trading best times, but after half an hour of running it was Trident’s Alessio Lorandi who was quickest.
Mazepin was the first driver to beat the fastest time of Wednesday, set by team-mate Jake Hughes. Hubert then got the better of the Russian to displace him at the top to lead after the first hour.
At the midpoint of the session running lulled as teams prioritised longer runs and data assessments rather than chase outright lap times.
Ilott was the first to break into the 1m48s bracket to get the action going once again, holding the top spot for almost an hour.
Hubert once again returned to the head of the time-sheets, with 40 minutes of the session remaining, by just under a tenth in hand over Ilott. The Frenchman remained unchallenged as the morning session drew to a close, going to the break fastest as he done so yesterday.
Ilott remained second, Leonardo Pulcini (Campos Racing) broke ART’s stronghold on the top by jumping ahead of Mazepin.
Tatiana Calderon was fifth fastest (Jenzer Motorsport), with yesterday’s fastest runner Hughes sixth ahead of Lorandi.
Campos’ Simo Laaksonen was eighth ahead of MP Motorsport‘s Dorian Boccolacci, as Pedro Piquet rounded off the top ten and in process completed the most laps of the morning – 54.
The Le Castellet test officially comes to an end at 4pm local time.