Jenson Button has spoken out following the attempted attack on his reinforced armoured Mercedes as he made his way back to his hotel last night.

His driver - an armed Brazilian policeman specially hired by McLaren - spotted six men with weapons and immediately took avoiding action in order to get Button and the other passengers - who included John Button, Jenson's father - to safety.

"We were going back from the track and were outside a shanty town and moving slowly on a busy road," Jenson told the Daily Mail. "I saw a dog come out. It was very cute.

"The next thing I saw was a man with a gun," he continued. "Our guy angled the car and floored it. That's when we saw six men, all of them brandishing machine-guns. My driver was a legend. He bounced off about five cars. We were driving over the top of them.

"It was very scary. I don't know whether they knew who it was they were ambushing. I said, 'Isn't that a gun?' and as soon as I said that, the driver angled the car. I am glad I didn't have my girlfriend Jessica with me she would have been terrified.'

Over the years other teams, most notably Toyota and Williams have been the victims of similar armed attacks on their vehicles, while incidents of theft at the circuit are rife.

Button, like his teammate Lewis Hamilton, usually drives himself to and from circuits but in Brazil McLaren insisted on using the services of a trained driver and reinforced vehicle.

It's understood that the owners of some of the other cars damaged in the incident followed Button back to his hotel to get his insurance details.