Formula One winner Jenson Button
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-08-07 16:41
Aug 6 - Following is a brief factbox on Briton Jenson Button, who won
Sunday"s Hungarian Grand Prix for his first Formula One victory:
Date of birth: January 19 1980 in Frome, England
*British Formula Ford champion and McLaren BRDC young driver of the year in
1998.
*Joined Williams at the age of 20 as a replacement for Italian Alex Zanardi
in 2000 after a 'shoot-out' for the drive with the team's Brazilian test driver
Bruno Junqueira. Team boss Frank Williams called Button up on his mobile phone
while the Briton was in the pub with friends.
*Qualified third at the Belgian Grand Prix, a real test of a driver, in his
first season and became Formula One's youngest points scorer with sixth place in
Brazil.
*Moved to Benetton in 2001 and stayed when that team became Renault in 2002.
*Joined BAR (now Honda) in 2003 after being replaced by Spaniard Fernando
Alonso at Renault.
*Button took his first pole position at Imola in 2004 and his first podium
position with third in Malaysia. He finished second four times that year.
*Button had to pay Frank Williams an estimated 18 million pounds ($34.06
million) last September to get out of a contract to join that team. Ironically,
the driver tried to join Williams the previous year but was thwarted by BAR boss
David Richards.
*Achieved first win in 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix.
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