A weekly newspaper unearthed some previously unseen photos for a supplement about the early life of a new sporting world champion.

The Somerset Standard stepped back in time for the piece looking back at Formula 1 champion Jenson Button’s first 19 years of his life growing up in Frome, the main town on the Standard’s patch.

The eight-page supplement, which was wrapped around the regular edition of the Standard, featured stories about his early days in the area as well as his world title winning endeavours.

It included hitherto unseen school-age pictures of Jenson when he first started kart racing and an interview with his driving instructor, recalling that Button actually failed his first ever test.

A former teacher of the 29-year-old also told how, aged just ten, the young Jenson stood on his school stage told everyone he would one day be Formula 1 world champion.

Standard editor Sam Holliday said he was delighted with the end result.

He said: “Weekly newspapers, even with the advantage of the web, still suffer from not being able to break the news first and so imagine how hard it is do something original when the whole of the world’s media has covered an event days before.

“But, because we believe that life is local, we concentrated on our unique selling point – our unrivalled links with Jenson’s past.

“I am very proud of everyone for rallying around to produce this supplement.”