A malfunctioning sensor heavily impacted the race for SMP Racing's #11 BR Engineering BR1 driven by Jenson Button at the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car spent more than two hours in the garage to repair the problem, dashing any hope of a podium finish. Yet, the 2009 F1 world champion and his teammates Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov did not give up...until the car's engine broke down an hour from the checkered flag.

Jenson Button is extremely pleased with his first Le Mans experience. On Instagram he wrote: "Very late post Le Man [sic] post but I’ve been in recovery mode! Where do I start, what a wonderful experience racing at Le Mans is, whatever the result just being part of the circus is a very special feeling, I did 2x5 stints with my longest time strapped into the car being 3hrs40 but at no point did I want to hand over to my team mates apart from needing a wee!"

"Experiencing sunset and sunrise from behind the wheel is something you never get tired of, the race was nonstop action and new experiences even for someone like me who’s spent 17 years in F1, just a pity we couldn’t make it to the end. There’s always next year as they say and we will be ready for it, ready to fight, big thanks to the whole @smp_racing team and my teammates @vitalypetrov @aleshin_official (Mikhail Aleshin, Ed.) and the sister car. Lastly congrats to the #8 car  (Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima, Ed.) for finally grabbing the win which was very well deserved."

The British driver is now looking forward to "next stop Silverstone in front of the home crowd" (third round of the 2018-2019 World Endurance Championship Super Season)!