Features

The rise and rise of Jenson Button

Author: John Harris
Date: 02/10/2009
Formula One betting

Brawn GP ace Jenson Button is on course for a sensational victory in the Formula One world championship race, having endured and enjoyed a torrid last 12 months.

Before the current campaign got underway, Button looked likely to be left without a drive when Honda pulled out of F1, but a management buy-out headed by Ross Brawn has seen the team re-emerge and enjoy even greater success.

Button and the former Honda team made a flying start to the campaign with victory at the Australian Grand Prix, which was followed up by a win in a rain-shortened Malaysian GP.

Third place in China ruined Button's chances of a hat-trick, but he made amends in some style winning the next four races in Bahrain, Spain, Monaco and Turkey.

His run of six wins in seven races at the start of a season is a feat achieved by only two drivers before Button - Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher.

Frustratingly he was unable to make it five in a row at his home British GP and the five races since then have yielded just one podium finish - a second place in Italy.

However, sportsbook favourite Button remains well out in front in the drivers' standings with just three races of the season left, holding a 15-point lead over team-mate Ruben Barrichello.

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The 29-year-old Englishman is also phlegmatic about his recent struggles, saying: "The important thing is to make the most out of the good times, but also the difficult times.

"When it's difficult, you need to pick the points up and that's what I have been trying to do."

Button certainly knows a thing or two about the tough times, as before this season he had raced in 154 Grand Prix and won on just a single occasion, at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix.

His F1 career started with Williams in 2000, before he moved to Benetton a year later, just as the team was bought out by Renault.

However, he struggled to make an impact with Renault and team boss Flavio Briatore decided to promote then test driver Fernando Alonso to take Button's place, a move which paid off with two world championships.

BAR was Button's next destination and again he was frustrated by an unreliable and off the pace car, while contract wranglings only served to cloud the waters further.

However, things began to turn around when Honda bought up BAR in 2005 and Button finally had a major team behind him, but initial promise failed to bear fruit.

Only a rain-soaked win in Hungary lifted the gloom and Button looked like he would fade from the F1 scene before a dramatic reversal in fortunes this year.

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