Button analyses nightmare Le Mans debut

Fernando Alonso took the win on his Le Mans debut, but Jenson Button, another former F1 world champion making his Le Mans debut, couldn't finish all 24 hours of the famous race.

Button was up against it in his SMP Racing car from the start, as his SMP had nowhere near the pace of Alonso's Toyota that took pole. The difference in qualifying: over four seconds.

During the race, the chances of a potential upset quickly faded after a positive start, as the car encountered electrical issues and had to be in the pit for 45 laps. Issues were resolved and the car was ready to go again (albeit with a monstrous gap with its competitors) but an hour before the end, the car broke down completely, denying Button to even finish the race.

“It was a shame we had the issues we had the issues that cost us 45 laps, and then it’s a hard fight from there because you’ve another 21 hours of pushing, knowing you won’t achieve anything apart from finishing,” Button told Motorsport.

“Vitaly [Petrov], Mikhail [Aleshin] and myself did a good job of pushing the car hard but not too hard, and we had the failure in the end with the engine, which is a shame.

“But I think there’s a lot learnt from this race for everyone.”

This was SMP's first year, so no doubt they'll come back stronger next year around!