Know the F1 stars:Jenson Button

The Englishman had to wait until 2004 to claim his maiden pole at Imola, driving for BAR and another two years before he scored a momentous maiden Grand Prix win in Hungary.He scored two further podium, finishes the same year in Brazil and Malaysia.

Button’s decision to stick with former Honda team in 2009 has paid off big time. He won six of the first seven races to equal a record achieved by only two other drivers, Michael Schumacher and Jim Clark.

FACT FILE
Date of Birth 19/01/1980
Place of Birth Frome, Somerset
Team Brawn GP
Nationality British
Podiums 23
Points 317
Grand Prix entered 170
World Championships 0
Highest race finish 1 (x7)
Highest grid position 1 (x7)

KNOW YOUR STARS

• Button attended Selwood Middle School and then Frome Community College.
   
• He is the son of former Rallycross driver John Button from London.
   
•  Button is named after his father’s friend Erling Jensen, but with the ‘o’ so as not to be confused with the similarly-named sportscar company.
   
• Button began karting at the age of eight, after his father bought him his first kart.
   
• He won all 34 races of the 1991 British Cadet Kart Championship, along with the title.
   
• In 1997, he became the youngest driver ever to win the European Super A Championship
   
•  At the end of 1998, he won the annual McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award. His prize included a test in a McLaren Formula One car.
   
• Button has a racy girlfriend - Japanese model JESSICA MICHIBATA.