At 9 o’clock on the dot on Sunday 3 June, the two BR1 - AER prototypes hit the track. Jenson Button was at the wheel of the #11 car. The atmosphere was somewhat tense in the Russian team’s garage. After a first reconnaissance lap with a time of 6:07, the British driver returned to the pit. As he climbed out of the cockpit, he gave his first impressions: “The track curves inwards at the Forest Esses, so much so that the car seems to steer itself, as if the driver no longer has any control. Then on the Mulsanne Straight, it’s convex and it’s pretty tricky to move from one side to the other."

Like SMP, all the teams called their cars back in for a quick inspection after the first lap. They were all soon back out again... apart from the two LMP1s developed by Dallara. For an explanation of what was going behind the scenes, we need to look back at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps when the #17 suddenly became airborne at Raidillon. Naturally, changes were made to the car after that incident, most notably the addition of four small deflectors at front of the bonnet. Safety first. After this first lap at Le Mans, the telemetry data was analysed. Next, there were checks to make sure that there was now sufficient downforce to prevent the car from repeating its Belgian flight.

Button returned to the track almost an hour later. And again came back to the garage after one lap. There was more talk of telemetry data. This time, the issue was with a ride height sensor. The faulty part, located on the car’s left-hand side, was quite difficult to reach. The minutes ticked by. Alonso’s Toyota had already completed its 20th lap. Button appeared restless, hopping from one foot to another. Meanwhile, the other BR1 - AER was running like clockwork in the hands of Russian driver Matevos Isaakyan. A good thing: feedback from the #17 will be valuable for the #11. On Button’s car, the air scoop designed to cool the brakes was partially obstructed and at 11:09, he went back out again.

 A few minutes later, he completed his first lap of the morning, without returning to the garage this time!   And he had got off to good start, with a lap time of 3:35.545. “He learns faster than most drivers,”, said Stéphane Sarrazin , his eye on the standings shown on the screen in the garage. "We went for a tour of the circuit together yesterday. I pointed out the potential dangers, the places where you mustn’t overtake the slower cars, things like that." Almost 20 minutes later, Button had beaten the symbolic 3:30-mark. By 11:40, he had completed the ten mandatory laps (including five timed). That’s one item checked on the To Do list for Sébastien Philippe, the team’s French manager.