José María López

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For the Spanish footballer, see López Silva.

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José María López
220px
Nationality Argentine
Born (1983-04-26) 26 April 1983 (age 41)
Río Tercero, Argentina
World Touring Car Championship career
Debut season 2013
Current team Citroën Total WTCC
Car no. 37
Former teams Wiechers-Sport
Starts 49
Wins 21
Poles 14
Fastest laps 20
Best finish 1st in 2014, 2015
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
2014–2015
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 in Río Tercero, Argentina) is an Argentine race car driver and reigning 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. On 16 December 2013 he joined the Citroën Total WTCC team for the 2014 World Touring Car Championship season.[1]

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.[2] He stayed in the series for the 2002 season driving for Cram Competition, finishing in fourth position, taking one victory.[2] 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.[2]

Formula 3000 and GP2

In 2004 López moved up to International Formula 3000 with the CMS team, finishing sixth overall.[2] 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.[2] For 2006 he moved to the Super Nova Racing team, finishing tenth in the standings.[2]

Return to Argentina

File:2010 Punta del Este Grand Prix - TC2000 - José María López' Honda Civic.jpg
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.[2]

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.[3] Sources close to López claimed he already had eighty percent of the funds needed to secure his place in the team.[4]

López was announced as a driver for US F1 on 25 January 2010.[5] 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.[6] 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 (now renamed as the Hispania Racing F1 Team), leaving López without a race drive.[7]

Recent years in 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.

File:Jose Maria Lopez 2014 WTCC Race of Japan (Practice 1).jpg
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.[8] He took both Yokohama Independents' Trophy victories and scored an overall victory in race two.[9]

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[10]-, 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.",[11] yet he still dominated the first part of the season competition[12] with his team-mates on the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC.

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 SMR
FEA
2		 SMR
SPR
11		 ESP
FEA
6		 ESP
SPR
1		 MON
FEA
Ret		 EUR
FEA
13		 EUR
SPR
14		 FRA
FEA
2		 FRA
SPR
Ret		 GBR
FEA
9		 GBR
SPR
Ret		 GER
FEA
13		 GER
SPR
10		 HUN
FEA
Ret		 HUN
SPR
Ret		 TUR
FEA
6		 TUR
SPR
7		 ITA
FEA
Ret		 ITA
SPR
Ret		 BEL
FEA
10		 BEL
SPR
8		 BHR
FEA
4		 BHR
SPR
4		 9th 36
2006 Super Nova Racing VAL
FEA
5		 VAL
SPR
Ret		 SMR
FEA
Ret		 SMR
SPR
Ret		 EUR
FEA
4		 EUR
SPR
3		 ESP
FEA
Ret		 ESP
SPR
Ret		 MON
FEA
Ret		 GBR
FEA
Ret		 GBR
SPR
14		 FRA
FEA
3		 FRA
SPR
Ret		 GER
FEA
7		 GER
SPR
2		 HUN
FEA
8		 HUN
SPR
Ret		 TUR
FEA
9		 TUR
SPR
11		 ITA
FEA
Ret		 ITA
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 Points
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

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/106/career/ Career statistics at Driver Database
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by Italian Formula Renault champion
2002		 Succeeded by
Franck Perera
Preceded by
none
 Formula Renault V6 Eurocup
2003		 Succeeded by
Giorgio Mondini
Preceded by Winner of the 200 km de Buenos Aires
2008
(with Anthony Reid)		 Succeeded by
Norberto Fontana
Ricardo Mauricio
Preceded by TC 2000 champion
2008-2009		 Succeeded by
Norberto Fontana
Preceded by Súper TC 2000 champion
2012		 Succeeded by
Matías Rossi
Preceded by Top Race V6 champion
2009		 Succeeded by
Guido Falaschi
(Copa América)
Agustín Canapino
(Close Tournament)
Preceded by World Touring Car Champion
2014–2015		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
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