On Sunday Button made his debut on the Circuit de la Sarthe in SMP's BR Engineering BR1-AER alongside Russians Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin.

Petrov ended the official test in fifth with a 3m21.603s, two seconds off Mathias Beche’s time in the #3 Rebellion R-13-Gibson, the fastest non-hybrid LMP1 of the day.

Button, who completed 20 laps on Sunday, said he was impressed with the pace shown by the competition but thinks his Russian outfit can be competitive in the race.

"The times are surprisingly quick for the test day," he said. "To get a privateer car into the [3m]19s – it’s pretty impressive.

"We’re a bit behind that, but we had traffic – I’m sure everyone does on every lap here. It’s an experience fighting through the traffic.

"Hopefully we’ll be able to challenge the Rebellions, which I think is the aim. It’s difficult to compare to the Toyotas, because you never know what they’re doing. You never know how quick that car can go."

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