Showing posts with label McLaren. Show all posts
Showing posts with label McLaren. Show all posts
Button praises driver in gun escape
Formula One world champion Jenson Button hailed the swift actions of his police driver after being confronted by an armed gang in Sao Paulo. Button, his father John, manager Richard Goddard and trainer Mike Collier escaped unharmed following Saturday night's frightening attack that occurred on their return to their hotel after the qualifying session for the Brazilian Grand Prix. The quartet managed to flee the machine-gun wielding assailants as their police protector used the armoured Mercedes he was driving to barge his way through several vehicles. "We were going back from the track and were outside a shanty town and moving slowly on a busy road," Button told the Mail on Sunday. "I saw a dog come out, which was very cute. The next thing I saw was a man with a gun. I said 'isn't that a gun?' and as soon as I said that, the driver angled the car and floored it. That's when we saw six men, all of them brandishing machine guns. "My driver was a legend. He bounced off about five cars. We were driving over the top of them. It was very scary. "I don't know whether they knew who it was they were ambushing. But I am glad I didn't have my girlfriend Jessica (Michibata) with me. She would have been terrified." Mr Goddard also praised the officer assigned to protect them, an action purposefully instigated by McLaren given the level of gun crime in Sao Paulo, one of South America's most violent cities. He said: "We were very lucky to have a police driver looking after us because he got us out of what could have been quite a frightening situation. "The real positive thing to take out of it is that we are all fine and we're all able to look back on it and see it for what it was. "Obviously from our perspective, luckily it wasn't a lot worse, and luckily the sharp actions of our police driver forcing his way through the traffic like he did was great."
Jenson Button in attempted car-jacking in Sao Paulo
The British driver was travelling back from the qualifying round of the Brazilian Grand Prix, in which he is competing today, when six men surrounded his black Mercedes B-Class, which is fitted with bullet-proof glass. He was with his father, John, his trainer, Mike Collier, and manager Richard Goddard and was travelling past the entrance to one of the city’s “favelas”, or shanty towns. “It was pretty terrifying,” Button said. “We were moving pretty slowly in traffic just outside when we pulled up outside the entrance to one of the favelas. I saw a dog and remarked 'Oh, cute dog’ when about six men came out. One of them appeared to be holding a truncheon. “Then I said 'hey, isn’t that a gun?’ and as soon as I said that our driver angled the car and just floored it. He was a complete legend. We bounced off about five cars. We were literally driving over the top of them. “It looked like we may have been targeted.” Button, 30, qualified in 11th position for today’s race, which is the penultimate competition of the season. Button is not expected to retain his title, which could be won today by Fernando Alonso. Brazil’s favelas are notoriously lawless and crime-ridden shanty towns which have grown up on the edge of the country’s major cities. The harsh life in the slums was depicted in the Oscar nominated 2002 film City of God.
Jenson Button, the defending Formula One World Champion, has described how he was threatened by men brandishing machine guns in an attempted car-jacking in Sao Paulo.
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