2009 world champion Jenson Button is to return to full time racing next season when he contests the Super GT series in Japan.

"Breaking: Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button announces at Honda Racing Thanks Day 2017 that he will race full-time in the Super GT series in 2018!" tweeted Super GT World yesterday.

"I'll be racing for Honda and have a contract to race with Honda in Super GT in 2018," the Briton had told fans at the Honda festival at Motegi.

"It's been a dream for the last couple of years, I love the category," he added. "I did one race in Suzuka this year, and it got me very excited."

While Button returned to F1 for a one-off appearance this year, replacing Fernando Alonso at the Monaco Grand Prix as the Spaniard contested the Indianapolis 500, he made it clear that it was a one-off and that there would be no further F1 outings having previously admitted that he "fell out of love" with the sport during the trials and tribulations of the previous year.

Super GT began in 1993, and having initially been run as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, was renamed Super GT in 2005. It is the top level of sports car racing in Japan.

The series, which has two categories, GT300 and GT500, features driver and team championships.

The 2017 championship was run over 7 rounds between April and November, and over the years has hosted numerous F1 drivers including Ralf Schumacher, Aguri Suzuki, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Pedro de la Rosa.

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1. Posted by Your Mom's Best Friend, 06/12/2017 19:44

"@Hippy, @Mad Matt ~

Well, thank you both for remedying my indolence (but whoever gave me a thumbs-down, sorry, I have no idea what could possibly have offended in my comment).

I assumed that if he ever won Monaco then it had to have been in the Brawn. Such a shame that Honda pulled out at the end of the prior year.

Regarding Button, personally speaking, I can't say that I particularly enjoyed watching his career. I found him to be massively overrated at the beginning and somewhat underrated nearing the end, if that makes any sense. Decent enough driver compared to many of the scrubs that have filled seats over the years I suppose. But I especially found distasteful (and that's putting it politely) the whole mess between Williams and Honda over his contract. Never really cared much for him after that..."

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2. Posted by Mad Matt, 05/12/2017 12:05

"Won, parked in the wrong place and had to jog up the track to the podium.... if memory serves.

Hope he enjoys Super GT, I certainly enjoyed watching his F1 career."

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3. Posted by Hippy, 05/12/2017 7:47

"Jenson won Monaco in 2009, in the Brawn, I also laughed at Mickl's comment."

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4. Posted by Your Mom's Best Friend, 05/12/2017 2:56

"@ mickl

Literally laughed out loud at your comment.

But then, I started thinking...

Alonso, in typical Alonso manner, wouldn't even shrug his shoulders in his deckchair at this. Button being a less than zero competitor for Alonso's pretentions of winning the "Triple Crown". For one thing, I'm pretty sure that Button has publicly stated that he has no interest in running the 500. But I can't remember, has he ever won at Monaco ? I'm too lazy to look it up...
"

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5. Posted by mickl, 04/12/2017 23:13

"He should have got himself a Le mans drive to wind Alonso up."

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Button returns to racing

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