Motor Racing: JENSON READY TO PUSH THE RIGHT BUTTONS; MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX.

JENSON BUTTON awarded himself an end-of-season bonus yesterday before collecting another from Johnny Herbert.

As befitting a playboy in the making, the 20-year-old boy racer acquired a swanky new address in Surrey and was told there would soon be a world championship trophy decorating the mantlepiece.

The detached home in the stockbroker belt near Guildford will be his British base and home to dad, John.

For tax reasons Button's permanent residence will be in Monaco. Where else?

It is yet another indicator of the scale of Button's elevation during a stirring debut year in Formula One. A world title aside, it could not have gone better, and even that is not far away, according to Herbert.

The departing Jaguar driver, who is heading in the opposite direction to Button, out of F1 and Monte Carlo, said: "Jenson has been great for British motor sport and for Formula One.

"He has shown how determined he is and the good thing about him is how much he enjoys it. He is not the smoothest guy in the world but he gets the times in.

"He has rattled Ralf's cage this season and as long as things go well for him it looks like we will have a British world champion."

With prospects like those he should have little trouble with his current project. An appeal has gone out to Britney Spears and a thousand like her across the world. The lad has had his phone nicked. Get in touch.

The heir to a tradition almost completely lost to F1, that of the carousing playboy driver, has coped with pressures beyond compare in his debut season, but is struggling to come to terms with the loss of the one thing he holds most dear - his little black book.

Not since the late James Hunt and retired Gerhard Berger smooched their way around the paddock has the grand prix circuit witnessed such unbridled enthusiasm for the good life.

Button has slipped as effortlessly into the jet-set lifestyle as he has a Formula One car, embracing the one as keenly as the other.

His guard slipped momentarily last week, however, during his stay at an upmarket Club Med resort in Malaysia. After leaving his seat to buy his father a drink, he returned to find his phone was not where he had left it.

"All those numbers, what a bummer," he said. "I didn't sleep that night. There were some good numbers in there. I was out of my seat for less than three minutes. Nightmare."

Never mind. Button has a month off to replenish the list before starting work for his new bosses Benetton in December. At his current rate of development he could be married and divorced by then.

Thankfully, Button's professional approach to fun is applied to his work. A season that began with the thumbs-up from Frank Williams on a sunny Barcelona afternoon in January continued along a staggering line of progression that surprised even his hard-headed employers.

The decision to let Button go was not supposed to be the agonising one it became. In principle, he was gone the day he signed, knowing of the verbal agreement Williams had to sign Montoya for 2001, but significantly, the moment the move became public coincided with a dramatic upturn in performance.

Button has out-qualified his much-heralded team-mate Ralf Schumacher in three of the past four races and utterly outperformed him in the last at Suzuka, where the lesser Schuey failed to finish. He will not have the same potent machinery next year but he will be measured against only one other, Giancarlo Fisichella. For that he claims he is ready.

"I knew from day one I would be at Williams for only one season, but I had to take the opportunity. It could have gone the other way, but in the end everything has worked out well and helped me to get a good seat for next year.

"The only person you can judge yourself against is your team-mate. Giancarlo is pretty quick, but I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be great," said Button.

The last time Flavio Briatore took a punt on a callow youth of obvious talent a new chapter in the book of Formula One legends was written.

Button arrives under Flav's wing in differing circumstances to those that greeted Michael Schumacher in 1991, of course, but with the same outrageous self-belief and focus.

He doesn't care too much for whom he drives as long as the car takes him to a world title.

"When I'm in the best car with the best engine, then I can win my first world championship. That's my goal. It would be nice if that were next year, but I doubt it," he said.

It took Schumacher three years to scale the mountain with Benetton. Should the cards fall for Button as they did for Schuey, the world title is one number unlikely to slip through his fingers.