F1 world champion failed his driving test after making basic error that left him stunned

A Formula 1 world champion once failed his driving test - and left his instructor stunned by what he did.

Jenson Button won the Drivers' Championship in 2009, driving for the Brawn GP team.

Team principal and owner Ross Brawn had taken over Honda in December 2008 after the Japanese manufacturer decided to exit the sport due to the worldwide financial crisis.

The new management inherited over £90 million directly from Honda, which would have otherwise been used for staff redundancies.

The team had significantly struggled during the 2007 and 2008 seasons, often fighting at the back of the field, but had developed a title-challenging car behind-the-scenes for the new regulations of 2009.

While previous frontrunners McLaren, Ferrari and BMW struggled to adapt to the regulations, Brawn dominated the early races of the 2009 season.

Seven weeks' today, we'll be racing again in Australia 🇦🇺

There have been many memorable races there, but 2009 is high on any list

Brawn GP was only three weeks old by race weekend

But that didn't stop @JensonButton taking the win #F1 pic.twitter.com/Io9sGxDpyD

— Formula 1 (@F1) February 4, 2018

Button won six of the first seven Grands Prix, though would not win again for the rest of the season as Brawn began to be plagued by tyre warmup issues and fell behind in the development race.

Still, that early season dominance was enough for the Brit to win the title with a race to spare.

It was a fairystyle story for the Frome-born driver, who had only won one Grand Prix - at Hungary in 2006 - before the 2009 season.

But he had established himself among the top echelon of drivers in the sport, and his lack of success prior to that was usually down to the car underneath him rather than any real weaknesses in his driving.

Prior to his F1 career getting underway, though, Button did have to re-take his car driving test after failing it at his first attempt - though the reason behind it was perhaps apt for a future F1 driver.

In an interview with BBC Sport in 2019, Button explained: "I did fail my first driving test, back in 1997.

"The instructor, the lady said, I went for a gap that wasn't there. Which I thought was quite... interesting.

"There was definitely enough room. There were parked cars on my side of the road. Obviously, you're supposed to give way to cars coming in the opposite direction - which I did.

"But then I nudged forward a little bit. I was 2cm either side of the mirror, and she said that was too close for comfort. Perfect for me, but not for her. So I failed."

He then revealed how, at 39 years of age, he had to do another driving test to become a United States resident - and while he did pass it first time, he had a humorous moment during the test.

"To live there, you need to have a US driving test, so you need to do the whole thing again," he said.

"I actually got quite a lot of help. I was doing 30mph in a 50mph zone, and she said, 'You can go a little faster here...'

"I replied, 'Ok, thank you!'"