Saturday May 6th, 2000

Briton Jenson Button said on Saturday he did not feel pressure from increasing media intrusion into his private life.

The Williams-BMW driver qualified 11th for the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya and afterwards talked briefly about his dealings with the media at a team news conference.

Earlier in the day the London Daily Mail ran a story in which Kimberley Keay, 19, alleged Button, 20 and in his first season of formula one, had offered to pay to have her pregnancy terminated last year.

On Saturday, when asked how he felt about such stories, Button smiled and said: "It's not too much. Not yet."

He agreed that he felt as if his life was being put under a microscope since he entered Formula One.

"It's not a real problem. The only thing is that sometimes my family can get caught out by it all."

There are signs the British media, after initially embracing Button as a sporting star of the future, are turning against the 20-year-old after he bought a Ferrari, ditched his girlfriend and talked of moving to tax haven Monaco.

Button won the opportunity to race for the Williams team when he outpaced Brazilian Bruno Junqueira in a pre-season shootout at Barcelona and became the youngest Briton to race in Formula One.

Jungueira was in Spain on Saturday and won the international Formula 3000 race at the Circuit de Catalunya.