Jenson Button produced the drive of his life yesterday to claim the Formula One drivers’ World Championship with a race to spare.

The 29-year-old Briton, starting back in fourteenth place on the grid, took to the Interlagos circuit in São Paulo like a man possessed to pearl jewelry finish fifth in a dramatic Brazilian Grand Prix.

With Rubens Barrichello, his Brawn GP team-mate and main rival, slipping from pole position to eighth place and Sebastian Vettel finishing no better than fourth, it was enough for Button to take the champion’s mantle from Lewis Hamilton and become the tenth British driver to reach the pinnacle of motor sport.

“This race, for me, was the best I’ve driven in my life,” Button said. “I know it’s because of the emotion involved with it, but also because I knew I had to make it happen.”
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In a voice strained from shouting and screaming in the cockpit and then in the garage with his team, Button added: “It’s great to be sat here as world champion. I personally think that I thoroughly deserve it.

“I’ve been the best over 16 races and that’s what world championships are about and now I am it — I am a world champion and I am going to keep saying that all night.”

Over ten years in Formula One, Button has faced regular criticism from those who said he was a mere playboy who lacked the stomach for a fight in the toughest series that pearl jewelry wholesale motor racing offers. But yesterday, around the classic track at Interlagos, he silenced his critics once and for all with a series of beautifully executed passing manoeuvres. The grand prix was won by Mark Webber for Red Bull.

After the race, an ecstatic Button climbed out of his car and began what can only be described as a victorious rampage around the paddock, celebrating with his mechanics, his race engineers, his father, John, his manager and his childhood friends from Somerset, who were there to see his moment of triumph.

Arriving for a hastily convened press conference, he was momentarily stunned by how few journalists were there, before the seats quickly filled up. “Where is everyone?” he roared into the microphone, “I’m the f****** world champion, you know!”

This was a man enjoying every second of the greatest day of his life as the relief of having completed his task and the realisation of what he had achieved swept over him.

The champion was being saluted up and down the pitlane, with Hamilton offering his own tribute but warning Button that he may not have the title for more than wholesale pearl jewelry one season. “I am very happy for him and his family, but I’m definitely planning on getting it back from him at some stage,” he said.

For Ross Brawn, Button’s team principal, yesterday marked the culmination of an extraordinary journey in which the Honda team were put up for sale last winter and saved by a management buyout led by Brawn himself.

The team, based in Brackley, near Silverstone, are the first to win both the constructors’ and drivers’ championships in their first season.

Brawn described Button’s performance as “sensational”. He said: “He was destroyed after qualifying, but the strength of the guy is that he slept on it and thought about it and said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s going to happen.’ ”

The smile was big and sincere, the handshake firm and the appeal word perfect and genuine. Jenson Button was a teenager with the diplomatic skills of Bill Clinton and the warmth of Fern Britton.

Eleven years on, he wakes up today as the Formula One world champion, but Button’s journey from promising teenager to polished professional has been tortuous.

Button’s misfortune is that he is both honest and open, qualities that have been taken advantage of more than once, yet somehow he still manages to stretch that wide smile and simply get on with it.

The evidence is that Button does not have a single enemy in the sport. Instead, he will be one of Formula One’s most popular — if understated — champions.
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Unlike Lewis Hamilton, his predecessor, who is the product of a long and expensive grooming programme mounted by Ron Dennis, the wealthy former team principal at McLaren, Button had to go it alone with only John, his father, at his side. They admit they have often made the pearl jewelry wrong choices, and yet Button’s talent could not, in the end, be denied.

I first met Button in 1998 when he was appealing for sponsors to fund his first year in Formula Three. At 18, his driving was just as impressive, smooth and fast and often compared to Ayrton Senna by those in the know.

By January 2000, Button had interested Sir Frank Williams enough to earn a test at the Jerez circuit in Spain — a shootout against the much more experienced Bruno Junqeira. The Brazilian was quick, but Button was blindingly fast and incredibly composed, even in an unreliable car.

The only jangling nerves belonged to John Button, peering through the low sun on the pitwall to get a glimpse of his boy. Button Sr had devoted his life to driving his son to tracks all over Britain, sometimes having to borrow a few quid to buy petrol to get their car and trailer, loaded with a go-kart, back to the home they shared in Upper Vobster, a tiny village in the rural wilds of Somerset, near Frome.

Suddenly the rewards came in a rush on that sunny morning in Jerez. Willams, a team owner blessed with a sense of adventure, could not resist the lure of such raw talent and put Button on a five-year contract. By the time he reached his first grand prix in Australia, he was a star.

It all seemed so easy when, a couple of pearl earrings weeks later in Brazil, he finished sixth to become the youngest points-scorer. That first season went by in a blur of headlines — and then the rollercoaster of Button’s career took its first dip. He discovered he was as much commodity as racing driver, loaned to the Benetton team to make way for Juan Pablo Montoya.

They were two deeply unhappy years in a team in transition. Button had sheltered under the wing of Williams, but he soon found himself under the management of a man who made no secret of his dislike for him: Flavio Briatore. Button was sacked, to be replaced by Fernando Alonso — by coincidence, managed by Briatore.

Button was rescued by David Richards, who had just taken control at BAR Honda, a staggeringly expensive yet unsuccessful operation. Under Richards, Button found a focus and, in 2004, the youngster regularly split the powerful Ferrari duo of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello to finish third in the World Championship.

It should have been the start of the journey to becoming world champion, but Button’s lack of a mentor off the track showed. His managers had bound him into a complicated long-term deal with Williams, their eyes on a bigger payday.

Confused, Button at first wanted to walk out of BAR, sparking a furious legal row that had repercussions for more than a year until Button and his father realised their future was with the Honda-backed outfit.

It cost Button an estimated £9 million to pay off the long-term contract he had been tied into with Williams, plus another £1 million to sever ties with his management team, which included Russell King, the man at the centre of a series of allegations in the controversial takeover of Notts County Football Club.

Off the track, Button was finally settled, putting his trust in Richard Goddard, a family friend and entrepreneur, to manage his financial affairs. On it, Button had pledged his future to Honda, now full owners of the team, hoping they could make good their word to make him champion.

But Richards had gone and Honda were a racing shambles. In 2008, as Hamilton became champion, Button sank to his lowest ebb of eighteenth in the championship.

But there was hope: one of Honda’s last acts was to recruit Ross Brawn, the man who had made Schumacher into a seven-times champion. At last, Button had found someone to believe in, so much so that he was prepared to take a £15 million cut in his three-year contract when Honda suddenly quit the sport at the end of last year and left Brawn to pick up the pieces.

Button could have walked and picked up a cheque for the pearl necklace £24 million he was owed and listened to offers from other teams. But he kept the faith.

It was an immense gamble, but one that has finally paid off with his crowning as Formula One world champion. Now that deserves another big smile.

Jamie Carragher has conceded that he and his team-mates have “a mountain to climb” if Liverpool are to reinvigorate their faltering hopes of claiming the title.

After three consecutive defeats in all competitions and their fourth in nine matches in the Barclays Premier League, Rafael Benítez’s side are eighth in the table and trail Manchester United, the leaders, by seven points.

With questions marks regarding Benítez’s position and lingering concerns about the club’s American ownership, Liverpool face a week containing two vital home matches. Tomorrow they host Lyons in the Champions League, before welcoming United to Anfield on Sunday.

In the aftermath of their 1-0 defeat away to Sunderland, in which the decisive goal, scored by Darren Bent, was scored courtesy of a deflection off a beach ball, Benítez revealed that Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres are not guaranteed to be available for the visit of Lyons, the pearl jewelry group E leaders. “I can only pray,” he said.
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The same applies to Liverpool’s aspirations of claiming the championship for the first time since 1990. “We have to forget those two players were not playing and think more about the players who were playing for Liverpool,” Carragher, whose own form remains disappointing, said. “We have to do much better.

“There is a long way to go yet, but if we continue losing games, it pearl necklace will be the end. We have given ourselves a mountain to climb, but Chelsea lost as well. There is a seven-point difference with Manchester United but we can’t think about the title right now.

“We have to forget about that and concentrate on the next league game, which will give us the chance to claw some points back. We have to restore our confidence and play much better.

“We are not playing well, the supporters know that. I am sure there will be a lot of stick flying around before the Lyons game.”

While Bent’s goal at the Stadium of Light should have been ruled out by Mike Jones, the referee — Law 5 states that the match must be halted in the event of “outside interference of any kind” — such was Sunderland’s dominance that objections were muted. “There are no complaints,” Carragher said.

While the fitness of Gerrard and Torres remains the pearl earrings priority, Alberto Aquilani, Liverpool’s £20 million summer signing from Roma, is edging closer to an appearance. The midfield player’s foot complaint has prevented him from making his Liverpool debut, but he will be considered for Wednesday’s reserve-team feature against Sunderland. “Maybe he will have a chance,” Benítez said.

Sunderland also have injury concerns, with Kenwyne Jones and Lee Cattermole carried off on stretchers on Saturday. Jones, the striker, has undergone a scan on a twisted ankle that is not thought to be significant, but there are fears that Cattermole, their midfield player, has damaged knee ligaments.