José María López

For the Spanish footballer, see López Silva.

José María López
López at the 2014 FIA WTCC Race of Japan
Nationality	Argentine
Born	(1983-04-26) 26 April 1983 (age 35) Río Tercero, Argentina
World Touring Car Championship career
Debut season	2013
Current team	Citroën Racing
Car no.	37
Former teams	Wiechers-Sport
Starts	71
Wins	29
Poles	20
Fastest laps	29
Best finish	1st in 2014, 2015, 2016
Formula E career
Debut season	2016–17
Current team	Dragon Racing
Car no.	37
Former teams	DS Virgin Racing
Starts	20
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	1
Best finish	9th in 2016–17
Finished last season	9th
Previous series
2012–13 2008–13 2008–13 2008 2007–11 2007 2005–06 2004 2003–04 2003, 2005–06 2002 2001–02	Super TC 2000 Top Race V6 Turismo Carretera FIA GT Championship TC 2000 Championship American Le Mans Series GP2 Series International Formula 3000 Formula Renault V6 Eurocup Formula One testing Formula Renault Italia FR2000 Eurocup
Championship titles
2014–2016 2012 2009 2008–09 2003 2002	WTCC Super TC 2000 Top Race V6 TC 2000 Championship Formula Renault V6 Eurocup Formula Renault Italia

José María "Pechito" López (born 26 April 1983) is an Argentine race car driver and 2014–2016 World Touring Car Champion. He raced in the 2006 GP2 Series for the Super Nova team, and previously for the DAMS team, and the CMS team in Formula 3000. He was also at Renault F1 as a test driver. He was supposed to make his Formula One debut in 2010 for US F1 Team but the team shut down before contesting a single race. On 16 December 2013 he joined the Citroën Total WTCC team for the 2014 World Touring Car Championship season.^[1] He won 10 races that year and clinched his first World Touring Car Championship. In 2015 he repeated the feat, again winning 10 races and the championship.^[2] In 2016, he again retained the title with eight wins.^[3]

Contents

• 
  1 Career
  
  
  
  • 
    1.1 Early career
    
  
  
  • 
    1.2 Formula 3000 and GP2
    
  
  
  • 
    1.3 Return to Argentina
    
  
  
  • 
    1.4 Formula One
    
  
  
  • 
    1.5 Return to Argentina
    
  
  
  • 
    1.6 World Touring Car Championship
    
  
  
  • 
    1.7 Formula E
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2 Racing record
  
  
  
  • 
    2.1 Complete International Formula 3000 results
    
  
  
  • 
    2.2 Complete GP2 Series results
    
  
  
  • 
    2.3 Complete GT1 World Championship results
    
  
  
  • 
    2.4 Complete World Touring Car Championship results
    
  
  
  • 
    2.5 Complete Formula E results
    
  
  
  • 
    2.6 Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results
    
  
  
  • 
    2.7 24 Hours of Le Mans results
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  3 References
  


• 
  4 External links
  

Career

Early career

López began in karting, before moving to the Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup in 2001, finishing in 17th position, taking one pole position and one fastest lap.^[4] He stayed in the series for the 2002 season driving for Cram Competition, finishing in fourth position, taking one victory.^[4] He also drove for Cram in Italian Formula Renault that year, where he became champion, taking four wins, beating Robert Kubica to the crown. He moved on to the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup in 2003, making his first association with the DAMS team, winning the title with five race wins.^[4]

Formula 3000 and GP2

In 2004 López moved up to International Formula 3000 with the CMS team, finishing sixth overall.^[4] He also continued in the V6 Eurocup that year, driving in four races.

López raced in the inaugural season of the GP2 Series in 2005, making him one of only a select few drivers in the series who had previous experience of a full season in Formula 3000, the series which GP2 replaced. He finished ninth in the standings racing for the DAMS team.^[4] For 2006 he moved to the Super Nova Racing team, finishing tenth in the standings.^[4]

Return to Argentina

López won the opening round of the 2010 TC 2000 season in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

In the early part of 2007, López raced in the American Le Mans Series, racing a Ferrari 430 GT for Corsa Motorsports/White Lightning in the 12 Hours of Sebring, and for Risi Competizione at St. Petersburg.

López also returned to Argentina in 2007 to race in TC 2000, the country's major production-based touring car championship. He was 5th that year, won the drivers' title in 2008, and successfully defended this crown in 2009. López also joined the Turismo Carretera in 2008 and the Top Race V6 in 2009; he became TRV6 champion in 2009. He narrowly lost out on winning the 2009 Turismo Carretera title after crashing out on an oilspill on the 18th lap of the final race of the season, thereby losing the unique opportunity to win three different championships in the same season.

He also competed in selected races of the FIA GT Championship in 2008 for the ACA Argentina team.^[4]

Formula One

López was a member of the Renault Driver Development programme between 2004 and 2006, and was test driver for Renault F1 during the 2006 season.

In November 2009 López confirmed that he had a deal in place with the new US F1 Team to race in the 2010 Formula One season, provided he secured an eight million-dollar sponsorship package.^[5] Sources close to López claimed he already had eighty percent of the funds needed to secure his place in the team.^[6]

López was announced as a driver for US F1 on 25 January 2010.^[7] Former F1 driver Carlos Reutemann, a close friend of US F1 principal Peter Windsor and a leading politician in Argentina, helped put the funding package together for López. Complications in USF1's progress and uncertainty over whether USF1 would be able to stay in F1 for 2010 caused rumours to surface that López was in talks with rival team Campos, in order to secure his place in F1. This was confirmed by his manager in late February.^[8] On 2 March 2010, he was freed from his contract due to US F1 not being able to attempt to race. On 4 March, Karun Chandhok completed the 2010 grid by signing for Campos (later renamed as the Hispania Racing F1 Team), leaving López without a race drive.^[9]

Return to Argentina

In 2010, López remained driving for Honda in the Argentine TC 2000 championship, finishing 6th. For 2011 he switched to Fiat. In 2012, he won the (super) TC2000 championship for a third time, with privateer team PSG16.

López's Citroën C-Elysée WTCC in the 2014 WTCC season.

World Touring Car Championship

He made his World Touring Car Championship début with Wiechers-Sport at the 2013 FIA WTCC Race of Argentina, substituting for their regular driver Fredy Barth.^[10] He took both Yokohama Independents' Trophy victories and scored an overall victory in race two.^[11]

In 2014, he moved to the Citroën team, and became 2014 World Touring Car Champion, clinching the title at Suzuka, thanks to his dominant race car -the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC that got 17 victories out of 23 races^[12]-, but also dominating his two team-mates : Yvan Muller and the circuit races rookie Sébastien Loeb. José María López finished the season with ten victories, close to the Yvan Muller's record.

In 2015, José María López expected to have more difficulties "I am aware the competition is going to be much stronger because the other drivers are going to know me, they will push harder and you can see this already how Honda is pushing more, the Chevrolet drivers and the same in my Citroën team.",^[13] yet he still dominated the first part of the season competition^[14] with his team-mates on the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC.

Formula E

In July 2016, López was confirmed as DS Virgin Racing's second driver for the third season of the FIA Formula E Championship and finished ninth in the Drivers' championship. He returned to Formula E for the 2017-18 campaign at the Marrakesh round for Dragon Racing, replacing the outgoing Neel Jani.^[15]

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
2004	CMS Performance	IMO Ret	CAT 6	MON 3	NÜR 5	MAG Ret	SIL 4	HOC 6	HUN 8	SPA 3	MNZ Ret	6th	28

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	DC	Points
2005	DAMS	IMO FEA 2	IMO SPR 11	CAT FEA 6	CAT SPR 1	MON FEA Ret	NÜR FEA 13	NÜR SPR 14	MAG FEA 2	MAG SPR Ret	SIL FEA 9	SIL SPR Ret	HOC FEA 13	HOC SPR 10	HUN FEA Ret	HUN SPR Ret	IST FEA 6	IST SPR 7	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR Ret	SPA FEA 10	SPA SPR 8	BHR FEA 4	BHR SPR 4	9th	36
2006	Super Nova Racing	VAL FEA 5	VAL SPR Ret	IMO FEA Ret	IMO SPR Ret	NÜR FEA 4	NÜR SPR 3	CAT FEA Ret	CAT SPR Ret	MON FEA Ret	SIL FEA Ret	SIL SPR 14	MAG FEA 3	MAG SPR Ret	HOC FEA 7	HOC SPR 2	HUN FEA 8	HUN SPR Ret	IST FEA 9	IST SPR 11	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR Ret			10th	30

Complete GT1 World Championship results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pos	Points
2010	Young Driver AMR	Aston Martin	ABU QR	ABU CR	SIL QR	SIL CR	BRN QR	BRN CR	PRI QR	PRI CR	SPA QR	SPA CR	NÜR QR	NÜR CR	ALG QR	ALG CR	NAV QR	NAV CR	INT QR	INT CR	SAN QR Ret	SAN CR 5	37th	10

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	Pos.	Pts
2013	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	ITA 1	ITA 2	MAR 1	MAR 2	SVK 1	SVK 2	HUN 1	HUN 2	AUT 1	AUT 2	RUS 1	RUS 2	POR 1	POR 2	ARG 1 5	ARG 2 1	USA 1	USA 2	JPN 1	JPN 2	CHN 1	CHN 2	MAC 1	MAC 2	15th	35
2014	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	MAR 1 1	MAR 2 2	FRA 1 4	FRA 2 1	HUN 1 2	HUN 2 6	SVK 1 2	SVK 2 C	AUT 1 3	AUT 2 1	RUS 1 1	RUS 2 Ret	BEL 1 2	BEL 2 1	ARG 1 1	ARG 2 1	BEI 1 3	BEI 2 4	CHN 1 1	CHN 2 3	JPN 1 1	JPN 2 6	MAC 1 1	MAC 2 5	1st	462
2015	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	ARG 1 1	ARG 2 2	MAR 1 1	MAR 2 3	HUN 1 1	HUN 2 6	GER 1 1	GER 2 2	RUS 1 2	RUS 2 12	SVK 1 2	SVK 2 2	FRA 1 3	FRA 2 1	POR 1 1	POR 2 5	JPN 1 1	JPN 2 Ret	CHN 1 1	CHN 2 3	THA 1 1	THA 2 3	QAT 1 1	QAT 2 8	1st	475
2016	Citroën Racing	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	FRA 1 6	FRA 2 1	SVK 1 5	SVK 2 1	HUN 1 13	HUN 2 1	MAR 1 2	MAR 2 1	GER 1 1	GER 2 1	RUS 1 5	RUS 2 8	POR 1 5	POR 2 5	ARG 1 5	ARG 2 1	JPN 1 4	JPN 2 2	CHN 1 4	CHN 2 1	QAT 1 9	QAT 2 3			1st	381

Complete Formula E results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos	Points
2016–17	DS Virgin Racing	Spark-Virgin DSV-02	HKG Ret	MAR 10	BNA 10	MEX 6	MON Ret	PAR 2	BER 4	BER 5	NYC	NYC	MTR Ret	MTR 3	9th	65
2017–18	Dragon Racing	Spark-Penske EV-2	HKG	HKG	MAR 6	SAN Ret	MEX 12	PDE 8	ROM 17†	PAR 10	BER 18	ZUR 12	NYC Ret	NYC Ret	17th	14

^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Rank	Points
2017	Toyota Gazoo Racing	LMP1	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	Toyota 2.4 L Turbo V6 (Hybrid)	SIL 13	SPA	LMS Ret	NÜR 3	MEX 4	COA 4	FUJ 2	SHA 4	BHR 4	6th	84.5
2018–19	Toyota Gazoo Racing	LMP1	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	Toyota 2.4 L Turbo V6 (Hybrid)	SPA 2	LMS 2	SIL DSQ	FUJ 1	SHA	SEB	SPA	LMS		2nd*	71*

^* Season still in progress.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2017	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Nicolas Lapierre Yuji Kunimoto	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	160	DNF	DNF
2018	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	386	2nd	2nd

References

1. 
   ^ Abbott, Andrew (2013-12-16). "Citroën reveal third car for López". TouringCars.Net. TouringCars.Net. Retrieved 2014-04-04..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
   


2. 
   ^ "José María López". FIA WTCC. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
   


3. 
   ^ "Standings". fiawtcc.com. 17 February 2015. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
   


4. 
   ^ ^abcdefg http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/106/career/ Career statistics at Driver Database
   


5. 
   ^ Pablo Elizalde and Matt Beer (2009-11-21). "Lopez set for USF1 drive". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
   


6. 
   ^ "Lopez signs conditional USF1 deal". F1-Live.com. 2009-11-21. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
   


7. 
   ^ Ampuero, Luis (2010-01-23). "Argentine Lopez set to drive for USF1 team". Reuters. Thomson Reuters. Retrieved 2010-01-23.
   


8. 
   ^ Beer, Matt; Elizalde, Pablo (2010-02-24). "Lopez manager admits Campos talks". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 2010-02-24.CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
   


9. 
   ^ Noble, Jonathan (2010-03-04). "Chandhok announced as HRT driver". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
   


10. 
    ^ Tremayne, Sam (26 July 2013). "Jose Maria Lopez to make WTCC debut in Argentina". Autosport. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
    


11. 
    ^ "RACE 2 – LÓPEZ MAKES HISTORY". World Touring Car Championship. Kigema Sport Organisation. 4 August 2013. Archived from the original on 19 August 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
    


12. 
    ^ "Jose Maria Lopez remarkable first season in the World Touring Car Championship with Citroën Racing WTCC". Crash.net. 20 December 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2015. For us, everything was new, the team was coming from rallying with a new car, new drivers. It was very difficult to set a goal. We never imagined to win so many races.
    


13. 
    ^ "Jose Maria Lopez remarkable first season in the World Touring Car Championship with Citroën Racing WTCC". FIA WTCC. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
    


14. 
    ^ "José María López says following in the wheel tracks of fellow Argentines Juan Manuel Fangio and Carlos Reutemann by winning on the Nürburgring Nordschleife is a "special" feeling". FIA WTCC. 17 May 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
    


15. 
    ^ "Jose Maria Lopez replaces Neel Jani at Dragon". fiaformulae.com. 5 January 2018. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
    

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to José María López.

• Official website


• 
  José María López career summary at DriverDB.com

Sporting positions
Preceded by Ryan Briscoe	Italian Formula Renault Championship Champion 2002	Succeeded by Franck Perera
Preceded by Inaugural	Formula Renault V6 Eurocup Champion 2003	Succeeded by Giorgio Mondini
Preceded by Juan Manuel Silva Ezequiel Bosio	Winner of the 200 km de Buenos Aires 2008 With: Anthony Reid	Succeeded by Norberto Fontana Ricardo Mauricio
Preceded by Matías Rossi	TC 2000 Championship Champion 2008-2009	Succeeded by Norberto Fontana
Preceded by Emiliano Spataro	Top Race V6 Champion 2009	Succeeded by Guido Falaschi (Copa América) Agustín Canapino (Close Tournament)
Preceded by Matías Rossi	Súper TC 2000 Championship Champion 2012	Succeeded by Matías Rossi
Preceded by Yvan Muller	World Touring Car Championship Champion 2014, 2015, 2016	Succeeded by Thed Björk

v t e DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team
Personnel Richard Branson (founder) Alex Tai (team principal) Race Drivers 2. Sam Bird 37. José María López Former Drivers Jaime Alguersuari Fabio Leimer Jean-Éric Vergne Formula E Powertrains Virgin DSV-01 Virgin DSV-02 Related Virgin Racing SRT 01E Citroën

v t e World Touring Car Championship & World Touring Car Cup champions
Early editions	Roberto Ravaglia (1987) Paul Radisich (1993, 1994) Frank Biela (1995)
Championships	Andy Priaulx (2005, 2006, 2007) Yvan Muller (2008) Gabriele Tarquini (2009) Yvan Muller (2010, 2011) Robert Huff (2012) Yvan Muller (2013) José María López (2014, 2015, 2016) Thed Björk (2017)

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