  We analyze the early X-ray flares in the GRB "flare-plateau-afterglow" (FPA)
phase observed by Swift-XRT. The FPA occurs only in one of the seven GRB
subclasses: the binary-driven hypernovae (BdHNe). This subclass consists of
long GRBs with a carbon-oxygen core and a neutron star (NS) binary companion as
progenitors. The hypercritical accretion of the supernova (SN) ejecta onto the
NS can lead to the gravitational collapse of the NS into a black hole.
Consequently, one can observe a GRB emission with isotropic energy
$E_{iso}\gtrsim10^{52}$~erg, as well as the associated GeV emission and the FPA
phase. Previous work had shown that gamma-ray spikes in the prompt emission
occur at $\sim 10^{15}$--$10^{17}$~cm with Lorentz gamma factor
$\Gamma\sim10^{2}$--$10^{3}$. Using a novel data analysis we show that the time
of occurrence, duration, luminosity and total energy of the X-ray flares
correlate with $E_{iso}$. A crucial feature is the observation of thermal
emission in the X-ray flares that we show occurs at radii $\sim10^{12}$~cm with
$\Gamma\lesssim 4$. These model independent observations cannot be explained by
the "fireball" model, which postulates synchrotron and inverse Compton
radiation from a single ultra relativistic jetted emission extending from the
prompt to the late afterglow and GeV emission phases. We show that in BdHNe a
collision between the GRB and the SN ejecta occurs at $\simeq10^{10}$~cm
reaching transparency at $\sim10^{12}$~cm with $\Gamma\lesssim4$. The agreement
between the thermal emission observations and these theoretically derived
values validates our model and opens the possibility of testing each BdHN
episode with the corresponding Lorentz gamma factor.
