Button trying to ruin Vettel party
Vettel may only need a point to become Formula One’s youngest back-to-back and double world champion, but he has already made it clear there will be no let up as he targets his 10th win of a thoroughly dominant campaign, and his fourth in a row.
As Vettel’s only remaining challenger Button, trailing by 124 points with only 125 available, would love to extend the battle by at least one more week.
If Vettel repeats the mistake he made in first practice then there is a possibility as a lapse of concentration resulted in the 24-year-old German running into a gravel trap and nudging a barrier.
As for the Briton, he made a perfect start to the weekend by finishing quickest at the end of both 90-minute sessions, with his best lap a one minute 31.901secs.
The 31-year-old is clearly in form at present, and on a high after putting pen to paper on a new multi-year contract this week with McLaren.
Although Button fully appreciates the championship is effectively over, he has every intention of at least making life as difficult as possible for Vettel.
“The final glory is not there — winning the title, taking the big trophy home, having the number one on your car — that’s gone,” said Button.
“Trying to win the title now is not really a challenge is it? It’s like challenging a four-year-old in a 100 metre sprint — you would absolutely destroy him.
“Maybe I could pay a few drivers lots of money to get rid of him for me — but then I would still have to win every race. Seriously, Sebastian has done a great job this year and he does deserve the title, but it would be nice to take it to another race.
“It means he needs serious issues in the race this weekend to not win it, but for me I’m naturally going all out to win. I’m sure it would be overshadowed by Sebastian’s world title victory, but I don’t care because crossing the line first here would be a great feeling at a circuit I love.”
Vettel clearly had things on his mind given the error he made at the end of first practice when he ran wide at one point into the gravel.
“I had a good reminder in practice not to start thinking about something else,” said Vettel, who finished third quickest behind Button and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
“It was not really a big mistake, but maybe at that moment I was not 100% awake, and mistakes around here can be quite costly.
Lewis Hamilton finished down in eighth, 1.3secs adrift, with his latest visit to the stewards mercifully culminating in no action being taken after he set a best sector time under yellow flags.
Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, meanwhile, has been fined £4,300 for making a late entry into the pits, going the wrong side of a bollard in doing so.
1. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault 309.
2. Jenson Button (Eng) McLaren-Mercedes 185.
3. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 184.
4. Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 182.
5. Lewis Hamilton (Eng) McLaren-Mercedes 168.
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