Photo: James Moy/Toyota
Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi still believe they and co-driver Mike Conway hold a chance of the world drivers’ championship despite entering the final two races of the FIA World Endurance Championship season with a 23-point deficit.
The No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing crew, which are coming off a Hypercar class-leading third victory of the season in the 6 Hours of Monza, have clawed their way back into the title hunt, tied with the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse trio of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi on 92 points.
With a maximum of 65 points still to play for between this weekend’s 6 Hours of Fuji and the season-ending 8 Hours of Bahrain, Lopez said anything can happen.
“It’s still far but obviously before Monza, we wouldn’t have expected to be in this position now,” he told Sportscar365.
“We’ve been very quick this year. I would say we’ve been the crew that’s won the most races, three races, but we’ve also been the crew that’s been the most unlucky.
“Portimao with this sensor issue we had, which was nothing to do with the team or us, and then Le Mans with the incident of Kamui, which was also nothing to do [with us].
“We lost many points there. We could be speaking about a different situation, maybe leading the championship for a good margin.
“We still have a chance.”
Kobayashi, meanwhile, has taken a less optimistic approach to his co-driver but hasn’t ruled out a comeback run.
“It is [a surprise we’re tied for second] but I think 23 points is quite a big [margin] to be honest. I don’t expect too much, to be honest,” he told Sportscar365.
“We just have to do a good job here and we’ll see how it goes in the last race.”
Lopez added: “Also there is more competition and as we saw with us and with Car 8 in Monza, if you have any little problem you can fall back on the grid quite a lot and lose many points.
“In terms of working and everything, we’ve always been working as the maximum we could, with or without competition.
“Now, definitely the racing is different. You have more racing, which is nice, obviously, and you need to get used to it again.
“But it’s something we wanted and we really enjoy that.
“There’s still two races and big points in Bahrain as well. We still have a chance and we’ll see.”
With Toyota having won all but one race in the modern WEC era at Fuji Speedway, Lopez admitted there’s a higher level of expectations when racing on the Japanese manufacturer’s home soil.
“There’s always pressure here,” he said. “It’s our home race and if we want a strong result, we always want it here.
“Of course now the game has changed a bit. We have BoP. We have more cars as well in the class. We know it’s going to definitely be very difficult but let’s hope that we can keep the record.”
Kobayashi added: “We have to do our job. The car is good and the guys are doing a great job.
“The drivers all have experience here. We know the track very well here. I would say we have more of an advantage than anyone in terms of experience and everything.”
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