Saturday June 3rd, 2000

Jenson Button makes his Monaco Grand Prix debut on Sunday and admits to being a little surprised by the fact.

"I didn't expect to be here this early, maybe in Formula 3000 but not in Formula One," the 20-year-old British driver said on Saturday.

Button, who starts 14th on the grid in his Williams, said he remembered coming to Monte Carlo when he was a karting champion and driving around the track.

"I've driven the circuit before in a road car and on a scooter so I know where the circuit goes and you can't go anywhere else because you've go the barriers in the way," he said.

"It's a great circuit, very tight and twisty and a bit harder to learn. You can't really find your limit without hitting something. That's the problem. You have to build up and find your limit that way."

Button said he was disappointed not to be in the top 10 on the grid, but he was learning with every lap. What's more, he said, you could not rule out the men who start at the back of the grid.

"Jacques is in 17th and he's a world champion," Button said, referring to 1997 title winner Villeneuve of the BAR team.

"Anything is possible in Monaco - especially if it rains," he added.

The tight corners and narrow streets of the principality may suit Button if the experience of his driving test is anything to go by.

He failed his first test for a road licence, but he insists the fault was really a merit.

"I was driving down a two-way road and the cars were parked on my side of the road so I had to give way to oncoming traffic," he explained.

"Being a racing driver I thought there was enough room. I went through and there was enough room -- there was about two inches (centimetres) either side of the mirrors. So the other person went up the kerb and that's what I failed for."