Toyota has adjusted its LMP1 driver lineup ahead of next month's 24 Hours of Le Mans.
José María López will move across to the team's additional TS050 Hybrid for the French endurance classic, in place of Stéphane Sarrazin who assumes López's old seat in the no.7 regular season car.
López will now partner Nicolas Lapierre and fellow Le Mans debutant Yuji Kunimoto, while Sarrazin joins former WEC team-mates Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi.
The move is understood to be about López's lack of seat time following his incident at the 6 Hours of Silverstone, which resulted in back injuries that ruled him out of the second WEC weekend at Spa.
Sarrazin's impressive lap times at Spa in the additional car, coupled with his existing experience at Toyota as a WEC regular from 2013 to 2016, helped seal the decision with the team's management.
“Our circumstances have changed over the last few weeks as a result of the injury to José María." said Toshio Sato, Toyota LMP1 Team President.
"He is in the unfortunate position of having completed very few racing laps this year in WEC, so we all felt it was appropriate to adjust the driver line-up."
"I am very confident that Stéphane will fit well into a #7 line-up which can fight for the win. José María, like Yuji, will learn a lot at Le Mans this year, familiarising himself with the track and the event in general, and this is an important step for the future as well.”
Toyota has also confirmed that López will be back with Conway and Kobayashi in the no.7 car for the six remaining WEC races after Le Mans.
The no.8 car lineup of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima remains unchanged for the 24-hours, which takes place on June 17-18.
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