Jenson Button was on an exploratory journey at Le Mans on Sunday, venturing into unknown territory at the wheel of an unknown car, but with a satisfactory result.
Button put 20 laps under his belt during at the Circuit de la Sarthe during the 24 hours of Le Mans' mandatory test day, driving the #11 SMP Racing BR1-AER he'll be sharing in two weeks with Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov.
"I was reasonably happy, but in the morning I found it another world – driving around here in a car I don’t really know," said the former McLaren driver.
"I found it quite disconcerting. But we made some good changes over lunch, and I was much happier with the car in the afternoon.
"[I had] a lot more confidence. High speed, good confidence, and the braking was much better too.
"We had quite a lot of ‘push’ and a lot of the corners here are very tight and they come up on you very quickly, which is very different from what I’m used to.
"I definitely got to grips with it in the afternoon, much happier. But you always want more running, and new tyres.
"We didn’t have enough time, look at the data we have, and hopefully we get some good laps in the Wednesday tests."
Petrov achieved the #11 BR1-AER's fastest time, clocking in with a lap in 3m21.603s that put the car fifth overall, about 2.5s behind Fernando Alonso's pace-setting Toyota.
A few issues impacted SMP Racing's day of running however.
"We lost a lot time because of a sensor issue this morning, so we lost a couple of hours just in the garage, it was a shame," explained Button.
"Then we had another small issue after lunch, so our track on time was quite limited. I only ran one set of tyres, not a new set.
“I think I did 20 laps, but I learnt a lot. This place is all about building confidence and gaining time," he added.
"You can go out and be as quick as you can, but there’s a big chance you’ll go off. You’ve really got to respect this circuit. It’s tough, but I feel very confident now at the end of the day."
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