ContinueSaturday night amid the sumptuous surroundings of Blenheim Palace and yours truly found himself hosting a Question and Answer session with Jenson Button, six hours after he had completed final qualification for the British Grand Prix, and Rory McIlroy, 12 days before he attempts to win The Open at Royal Lytham.
Both were standing on stage at a Santander Gala Dinner, the Spanish bank being sponsors of the Grand Prix, Mclaren-Mercedes and McIlroy.
They had met once before, at Wimbledon, the previous year, when they sat in the Royal Box at the All England Club, and it soon became clear that they possessed a natural chemistry between them.
Button is not a golfer. "Too slow for me," he said. "Plus, if I can't do something well I tend not to be interested." McIlroy is a big Formula One fan. "The speed those guys go at, the late braking and the manouevres they pull off are stunning," he declared.
Their sports may be poles apart, but their achievements were mutually experienced. Button became world champion in 2009. "It was the culmination of a lifetime of work and the fulfilment of a lifetime of dreams," he recalled. "It will forever be one of the happiest days of my life."
McIlroy snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in last year's US Masters, but recovered superbly to win the very next major, the US Open. "We all saw what happened in the final round of the Masters so to win the next major was doubly special because not only was it my first major, but that I won it on the back off Augusta," he admitted.
Both understood the pressure Andy Murray would be feeling the following day at the Wimbledon men's singles final, having experienced similar expectation when honing in on the world drivers' title or the Masters, where pressure got the better of McIlroy, and then the US Open, where the Northern Irishman overcame it. And both know that there is still so much to achieve.
"Just because I've got a world title under my belt doesn't mean I don't want more," added Button. "Same goes for me," concluded McIlroy. "There's the small matter of the Open at Lytham. Now that's something I'd very much like to win."
