Lopez, Sarrazin to join Buemi in Mexico dash

The Mexican round of the single-seater series clashes with the World Endurance Championship's official pre-season test, ahead of which Toyota is set to unveil its 2017 challenger.

All nine Toyota LMP1 drivers must attend the launch on Friday March 31, but Autosport revealed last month Buemi had been given permission to skip the test at the weekend in order to fly overnight to Mexico.

Autosport's sister title Motorsport.com understands that Lopez and Sarrazin, who have now been confirmed in Toyota's 2017 line-up, will travel with Buemi from Milan.

Championship leader Buemi drives for the Renault e.dams team in FE, while Lopez is a rookie with DS Virgin Racing and Sarrazin races with Venturi.

The trio will miss the traditional Friday shakedown session and also to sign on for the event late.

DS Virgin is expected to take recently-signed reserve driver Alex Lynn as cover in Mexico, but Renault e.dams and Venturi do not currently have an official reserve driver.

Lynn could also be called up for the New York double-header on July 15-16, with Lopez due to join Buemi in prioritising his Toyota LMP1 commitments at the Nurburgring WEC round that weekend.

Other drivers facing a WEC/FE clash in July include Lopez's DS Virgin team-mate Sam Bird, who drives for Ferrari in the WEC, as well as Renault e.dams' Nicolas Prost and NextEV's Nelson Piquet Jr, who have LMP2 programmes.