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Jenson Button (United Kingdom) Motor Racing, 30
Following the withdrawal of Honda at the end of 2008, Britain’s Jenson Button was left without a drive until former Honda technical director Ross Brawn stepped in and engineered a management buyout of the team. Button then found himself in a highly competitive Mercedes-Benz powered car for the 2009 season. He won six of the first seven races of the year, equaling the record of Michael Schumacher and Jim Clark and clinched the World Championship at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo with a race to spare. He and his team-mate Rubens Barrichello also clinched the Constructors Championship for Brawn. Button’s wins were in Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Spain, Monaco and Turkey. With 169 starts, Button had made the second-highest number of race starts before becoming World Champion. He has now signed for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes for the 2010 season.