Brazil
brazil-consulate.org

SÃO PAULO, Brazil (AP) — Last year’s Formula One champion, Jenson Button, knows good driving when he sees it, and he credited the undercover police officer driving his car with getting him and his companions out of what he called a “scary situation” Saturday night.

Button; his father; his physiotherapist, Mike Collier; and his manager, Richard Goddard, had left the track after qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix when a group of armed men attempted to attack their armored Mercedes.

“The driver was a legend, a great guy; he got us out of trouble,” Button said Sunday.

Button, who was sitting in the front seat, said the driver rammed through several vehicles and sped to safety. No one was hurt.

“We got between six cars to get past and got away,” Button said at a news conference. “Looking behind, there were two guys with handguns and one guy with what looked like a machine gun.

“It was a pretty scary situation. It’s not a very comfortable feeling, not great.”

In another attack Saturday night, three Sauber engineers were robbed just outside the Interlagos track, heightening security concerns as Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“Security is a matter for the local authorities,” said Mark Adams, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, “and we have absolute confidence that the Brazilian and Rio authorities will provide a safe and secure Games in six years’ time.”.

Attacks on drivers who stop at traffic lights or slow their cars in areas with intense traffic are not uncommon in Brazil. McLaren provided Button and his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, with armored vehicles driven by armed police drivers trained in avoidance techniques.

“We were probably unlucky more than anything else,” Button said, adding that the assailants all looked “quite young.”

Button said that his party left the track about 7 p.m. local time and that the attack happened when their car stopped at a traffic light a little more than a half-mile from the track.

“The driver obviously didn’t feel comfortable and stopped about a car length back,” Button said. “We looked to the right and saw five or six guys walk out of this building at the edge of the road. They looked suspicious. Then they started running toward the car.

“He floored it, banging through other cars and eventually got through. He did quite a job, really did.”

São Paulo authorities said that they had not been notified of the attack.

Gang members have been known to be attracted by the crowds attending the Brazilian Grand Prix, prompting the police to increase security around the Interlagos track, which is in the middle of the city in a mostly poor neighborhood. Even so, similar attacks have been reported in the past.

In 2007, a group of gun-wielding youths held up spectators in three cars leaving the circuit, and in 2006 members of the Toyota team were attacked by armed youths as they left the track. No one was hurt.

Button said he believed Saturday’s attack was random.

“It happens every year, but it’s the first time that it has happened to a driver,” he said. “It’s not a very nice feeling having to come to work in a bulletproof car with a policeman as the driver and two police cars, one in front and one in back, but that’s the way it is.”

Bernie Ecclestone, the chief of Formula One, played down the attack and said it could have happened anywhere.

“I’ve been coming here for 40-odd years, walking about, and I’ve never, ever had a problem,” Ecclestone told The Press Association. “That’s not just for the race, but at other times when I’ve been here, too. I’ve also never been around where I’ve seen anybody have a problem.”

The veteran Brazilian driver Rubens Barrichello said on Twitter that it was “a shame” that the incident happened.

Button finished fifth in Sunday’s race after starting 11th on the grid. The result eliminated him from the drivers’ championship.

Tags:  formula one attack driver rio de janeiro