Button Rattles Ferrari's Cage

Jenson Button seized the first pole position of his Formula One career on Saturday and made Michael Schumacher settle for second best in front of Ferrari's home crowd.

As reporters and cameramen thronged around the 24-year-old Briton in the San Marino Grand Prix paddock, proud father John savoured the moment with a fat cigar and a broad look of satisfaction.

"We've rattled Ferrari's cage which is brilliant, on their home soil. Fantastic," he said.

Saturday was Button's day, his achievement giving Formula One the exciting and real possibility of a new winner after three successive victories for Ferrari's six-times World Champion.

Button had waited 73 races for such a day, his previous best qualifying performance a stunning third place in his debut season with Williams at Belgium's daunting Spa circuit, a driver's track if ever there was one.

His last pole was in British Formula Three in 1999.

It was also the first pole for BAR, once the great under-performers of Formula One, since their debut in 1999 and the first for engine maker Honda since Brazilian Ayrton Senna in Canada in 1992.

There was a poignancy in that statistic, Sunday's Grand Prix at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit marking the 10th anniversary of the race in which the three-times champion died on May 1, 1994.

It was also the first pole by a British driver since McLaren's David Coulthard at Monaco in 2001.

Caught in a media frenzy, Button hugged his singer girlfriend Louise Griffiths who flew in from Australia on Saturday and had managed only to whisper good luck to him before qualifying began.

"I can't wait," he told a post-qualifying news conference when asked about the race and the possibility of the first win of his career and third podium in a row.

"Qualifying is one thing but winning a race is the real goal," he added. "It's the first time in my Formula One career that I've had nobody in front of me at the start. It's all down to me now."

Button will have a battle on his hands to fend off Schumacher, four times a winner at Imola in the past five years. But team boss David Richards had no qualms about the confident Briton.

"That's what you have to do, beat them (Ferrari) on their home ground is the game and this is very encouraging," he said. "Jenson is very calm, he's very much in control of the situation and so I feel very positive from that point of view.

"I think he can handle Michael, he's in the right frame of mind, he's really confident. I think the biggest problem is handling the press now," said Richards. "He'll sleep like a baby tonight, that's for sure."