Jenson Button has described how he and his companions escaped a kidnap attempt by armed men near the Interlagos circuit in São Paulo on Saturday night. The world champion was returning to his hotel after qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix when a group of men, some carrying automatic weapons, approached his car at a traffic light.
Button was in an armoured Mercedes-Benz with his father John, manager Richard Goddard, and personal trainer Mike Collier. The driver, a police-trained chauffeur, forced the car between stationary vehicles to flee. Button said: 'We stopped at the traffic lights, three rows back... We looked to the right and saw a few guys gathering by the side of the road... Richard noticed one had a baton hanging down from his arm and I noticed one was playing with something in his trousers, and it was a gun.'
The driver angled the car and accelerated, ramming through six cars to get past. 'We got through in the end, but looking behind there were two guys with handguns and one guy with a machine gun,' Button recalled. He added: 'We were in a B-class Merc, which is bulletproof... It stood up.'
The incident occurred on a busy road near the circuit entrance, where similar attacks have happened before. Button, wearing his McLaren top, noted that the car's blacked-out windows likely prevented recognition. 'It's a pretty scary situation. You don't believe it until it happens to you,' he said.
Button is unhurt and participated in the race on Sunday, finishing third. The Brazilian Grand Prix was the penultimate round of the 2010 season.
