Button wants permission for Japan charity visit

Jenson Button is hoping McLaren lets him fly into disaster-ravaged Japan.

The 2009 world champion, a long-time Honda driver with a Japanese girlfriend, is raising money for the country’s anguished citizens following the recent and unfolding earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.

"It (raising money) is going well but we are two people out of millions that are trying to do something," Button told the UK Express newspaper in Melbourne.

"Hopefully, I will be in Japan after China if I am allowed to," he added.

There will be a one-minute silence on the grid before Sunday’s grand prix.