Jenson Button makes history at Mt Panorama

The historic event proved irresistible to motorsport fans, with thousands lining the Mount Panorama track to see a Formula 1 car rocketing around the legendary circuit. Button completed five laps in the MP4-23 car, before five-times Bathurst champion, TeamVodafone's Craig Lowndes, himself wrote his own new chapter in Australian motorsport history, becoming the first-ever Australian driver to pilot a Formula 1 car around the famous Mount Panorama circuit.

The unique event, organised by Vodafone with the support of Bathurst Council, was inspired by Jenson himself, who after taking Lowndes' team mate, TeamVodafone driver Jamie Whincup's V8 Supercar, for a spin around Melbourne's Albert Park circuit last year, declared his desire to have a crack at The Mountain.

For V8 Supercar legend Craig Lowndes, the event presented a-once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to drive a Formula One car around a track he knows perhaps better than anyone else.

When Button took to the wheel of the TeamVodafone V8 Supercar, he fulfilled a dream- to thread a V8 racecar through the famous walls of Mount Panorama, a race he grew up watching as a young child in the UK.

Both Button and Lowndes paid tribute to fans, thanking them for travelling all across Australia to be part of this unique event and also for their kind donations to the Queensland and Victoria Flood Appeal.

Describing his first impressions on the track, Jenson Button enthused about the iconic motoring location,
"These guys are crazy - they really are. This place is fantastic. Television just doesn't do it justice. When I drove around earlier in a Mercedes road car it even felt fast. I think I'm going to have more fun in the V8 car than the F1 because you can actually use all the kerbs and get a good flow. I'm really excited about the challenge. It's the second time I'll be driving a V8 and I've got so many good memories of watching the V8s on TV and hopefully one day I get to drive one for real and it not just be four laps."

"As a driver you have your favourite tracks. Like Macau and Silverstone for instance. But this is the one I haven't had the possibility of driving and I'm going to fulfill a childhood dream in not only a V8 but also in a Formula 1 car - which I think is pretty special myself", Jenson said.

Describing the history-making opportunity, Jenson explained how it felt to be the first driver to pilot an F1 at Mt. Panorama.

"This is an iconic race track and it's great to celebrate the unofficial fastest lap in a F1 car. That was phenomenal. It was such a rush. Once you get over the straights being quite hard to control the car over it is such a pleasure. It's just a pity I don't have more laps to test it out."

As for the V8 experience, just what is it like up on top of the mountain in a V8?

In Jenson's words, "I was holding on tight all the way. It takes everything out of you. It was the experience I've wanted to have for many years and I've finally done it. In a way it's probably not a good thing because it's made me more hungry to come back."

Craig Lowndes was similarly enthusiastic about his novel Mt Panorama experience. On discovering Vodafone was giving him the opportunity to drive the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 at Bathurst, Craig said that the undertaking "initially seemed a bit crazy. But it's here and we're going to enjoy it for what it is. It will be a hell of an experience. I never thought in my lifetime we'd see this."

After driving the two cars, Craig compared the difference between driving an F1 and a V8 at Bathurst.

"When I first went out it was the acceleration but when you go through turn two you really realise how much acceleration you have. In comparison the V8 seems to labour up the mountain."

Vodafone is the Title Sponsor and Official Mobile Partner of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One team.