Lopez Targets Morale-Boosting Result for Akkodis ASP

Jose Maria Lopez says he has his sights on a morale-boosting result for the Akkodis ASP Lexus team in the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo following the withdrawal one of the team’s two cars as a result of Arnold Robin’s crash on Friday.

Akkodis ASP down to a single car for this weekend’s fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season at the Interlagos circuit as the No. 78 Lexus RC F GT3 proved beyond repair after Robin’s crash, triggered by a suspected brake failure, at Turn 4 in the opening practice session of the weekend.

It means the No. 87 Lexus shared by Lopez and his teammates Esteban Masson and Takeshi Kimura is carrying the hopes of the Jerome Policand-led team in Brazil.

But Lopez delivered a timely boost for Akkodis ASP when he set the fastest time in LMGT3 in Friday afternoon’s session, outpacing the Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Franck Perera by 0.325 seconds.

Reflecting on his first day driving the RC F GT3 since May’s Spa race, as he was called up by the Toyota Hypercar squad for the 24 Hours of Le Mans to stand in for Mike Conway, Lopez said he was satisfied with an improved showing by the car on single-lap pace.

“It was kind of the same as jumping in the Hypercar [at Le Mans],” Lopez told Sportscar365. “You’ve driven the car before and it’s just a matter of doing a few laps [to get used to it again].

“It seems better compared to my last race in this car at Spa. I think the Balance of Performance has slowly been getting better and that we are a bit closer.

“After Arnold’s crash, we have everyone in the team working for us, but you always want the second car to compare setups, so it’s a bit of a drawback, I would say.

“But we really want a good result and it would really help the spirit and the morale of the team, and for everyone involved in the project.”

Lopez however warned that he thinks the RC F GT3 may be at a disadvantage compared to some of its LMGT3 rivals in Brazil that are carrying less weight.

In a revised BoP for Sao Paulo, the Lexus is the third-heaviest car in the class at 1355 kg, topped only by the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R and the Lamborghini.

“I do think that with the old tires, with the weight of the car being one of the heaviest still, we have a lot of degradation compared to the others,” said Lopez.

“I think we are lacking performance on race pace. But on new tires, it seemed ok. It’s difficult to know what the others are doing, but it felt like the car was ok.

“In LMGT3, it’s harder to read [the practice times] than Hypercar sometimes. It depends who is in the car when they are using new tires – some teams never put the professional driver in with the new tires.

“I think we are not too bad, but with old tires we are lacking a bit of pace.”

Lopez’s chart-topping time on Friday comes amid a tough season so far for Akkodis ASP, with the team yet to finish higher than seventh in the new-for-2024 LMGT3 class.

The car that Lopez shares with Masson and Kimura only has a single points finish to its name so far this year at Le Mans, where Jack Hawksworth substituted for Lopez following his one-off return to the Toyota Hypercar ranks.