Button escapes unhurt in armed attack

Formula One world champion Jenson Button escaped unhurt from an attempted armed attack as he was driven away from the Brazilian Grand Prix circuit

Formula One world champion Jenson Button escaped unhurt from an attempted armed attack as he was driven away from the Brazilian Grand Prix circuit on Saturday,he and his McLaren team said. The Briton,who won his title in Brazil a year ago,was in traffic outside the Interlagos circuit when a group of men with guns targeted his car.

We were going back from the track and were outside a shanty town and moving slowly on a busy road, Button told the Mail Sunday newspaper.

I saw a dog come out,which was very cute. The next thing I saw was a man with a gun. I said isnt that a gun? and as soon as I said that,the driver angled the car and floored it. Thats when we saw six men,all of them brandishing machine guns.

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McLaren said in an earlier statement that Button was quickly driven away from danger by an armed policeman trained in avoidance techniques who was at the wheel of the bullet-proof Mercedes provided by the team.

Buttons father John,his manager Richard Goddard and physiotherapist Mike Collier were also in the car.

Sauber staff robbed

Three Sauber engineers were robbed at gunpoint,the team said on Sunday. They left the track,three engineers together in a van,at around 8 p.m. (on Saturday), a spokesman said. They had to stop at the red light and then all of a sudden five people were around the car,one with a machine gun,and they opened the door and took two rucksacks and disappeared. So nobody was injured.