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Lopez in doubt for Monaco Formula E race

ByAutoSport

Published 08/05/2017 at 09:16 GMT

Jose Maria Lopez could skip this weekend's Monaco Formula E race due to the injury that sidelined him from the Spa World Endurance Championship round.

Eurosport

Image credit: Eurosport

Despite initially being given the all-clear after his Silverstone WEC crash, Toyota driver Lopez was later diagnosed with two damaged vertebrae.
He stressed his priority is being fit for next month's Le Mans 24 Hours, and he is aiming to return to Toyota duty with a test at Spa in late May before the official Le Mans test on June 4.
While not ruling out racing in Monaco if doctors declare him fit, Lopez says he will skip the FE round if it might put his Le Mans debut at risk.
"It's not sure if I'm gonna be able to race in Monaco, I'm not doing this race [Spa WEC] because I want to recover [for Le Mans]," he told Autosport.
"I'm not going to do another race if I know that I'm not going to be able to recover. We will arrive and we'll see what the doctors say.
"If the doctor says I'm OK, I'm recovered and I can race, I will race.
"I have compromised with my team DS Virgin as well, I will try to jump in the car as quick as I can but making sure I'm recovering and for sure not going back on the injury."
Lopez's injury could mean DS Virgin reserve driver Alex Lynn gets an earlier-than-expected FE race debut.
Lynn has already been pencilled in for the New York FE race, which clashes with the Nurburgring WEC round that both Lopez and DS Virgin team-mate Sam Bird will be attending instead.
He has been working with the team since the start of this year, attending the Buenos Aires ePrix before taking part in the Mexico City shakedown session while Lopez was travelling back from Toyota's LMP1 car launch event.
Though he would not confirm he would be replacing Lopez in Monaco, Lynn said he feels "ready" for the chance.
"We'll wait and see what happens in Monaco," Lynn told Autosport.
"But I recently did a test in a development test for DS, I've done a lot of simulator time, so for sure I would be ready."
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