Button gets super-season WEC LMP1 drive with SMP Racing

Jenson Button is still very much an active racing driver, the 2009 F1 world champion accepting an opportunity to race in the World Endurance Championship with SMP Racing's LMP1 squad, starting at Le Mans in June.

Button has added the WEC gig to his Super GT commitment with Honda in Japan, which explains why he will jump on the LMP1 sportscar bandwagon only after next week's Spa opening round which clashes with a Fuji Super GT round.

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The 38-year-old will race at Le Mans for the very first time, sharing his SMP Racing AER-powered Dallara BR1 along with former F1 colleague Vitaly Petrov and IndyCar racer Mikhail Aleshin.

"As you can imagine it's always been a dream of mine to race at Le Mans, I think it's every driver's dream to take part and hopefully go on to clinch that win at Le Mans, and I'm definitely no different," said the 2009 F1 champion.

"My teammates will be Aleshin and Petrov, who I know very well from his racing in F1, and Mikhail from his IndyCar exploits.

"We go to Le Mans to fight for the win. Every driver aims to win every race they go in for, but I think we really do have a good chance of being competitive at Le Mans."

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