Button to race GT3 car for first time in November's famous three-hour race, the British GT championship's season finale
Thursday 15 October 2020 15:13, UK
2009 Formula 1 world champion and Sky Sports F1 pundit Jenson Button will race at next month's British GT event at Silverstone, making his GT3 debut in the championship's season finale.
Button - who made 306 race starts in F1, won his title with Brawn and was last on the full-time grid with McLaren in 2016 - will drive a McLaren 720S, the second entered by his Jenson Team Rocket RJN team for the three-hour Silverstone 500 on November 7/8.
The race will be Button's first on home soil since the 2018 World Endurance Championship event at the iconic Northamptonshire circuit, where he had little luck during his glittering F1 career.
Button, who will share the car with friend and team co-owner Chris Buncombe, said: "This will be my first taste of a GT3 car but I'm really looking forward it.
"It will be lovely to join our team and lining-up in the McLaren 720S with my best buddy Chris Buncombe. It's great to come back and race on UK soil again and a big thank you to our partners that have made this possible."
The British GT team and drivers' titles will be decided in the race, in which Jenson Team Rocket RJN will also enter their regular car shared by World's Fastest Gamer James Baldwin and Michael O'Brien, who won the season-opener at Oulton Park.
"Jenson and I have spoken for a while about sharing a car together on track - we have done a number of off-road races together driving a spec Trophy Truck in the US but never driven together in a GT race," said Buncombe.
"It will be great to return to Silverstone and I'm hugely looking forward to trying the McLaren 720S GT3."
Button has turned to sportscar racing since his F1 career finished, although the Silverstone 500 will be his first on-track race of 2020, having made appearances in various eSports events earlier this year.
The 40-year-old, 15-time Grand Prix winner will join a British GT field that includes Mia Flewitt, who races for Sky-backed Flewitt Racing in the GT4 Pro-Am class.
Flewitt, 50, and team-mate Euan Hankey have already wrapped up class honours for this season ahead of the Silverstone 500 finale.
