Jenson Button insists he is approaching the climax of the Formula 1 season in a “positive” mood despite failing to score points at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The English driver left Spa with minimal damage to his championship lead as none of his title rivals capitalised significantly on his first-lap crash.
Button leads his Brawn team-mate Rubens Barrichello by 16 points with a maximum of 50 available, with five races to go.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel is a further three points adrift of Button, with his team-mate Mark Webber 20.5 off the lead.
Button was taken out of the race in Belgium by rookie Renault driver Romain Grosjean, less than halfway around the first lap.
He has now scored only 11 points in the last five races after winning six of the season’s first seven grands prix. BBC Sport
“It’s been ebbing and flowing,” Webber said. “We’re all having trouble capitalising. Like someone said, it’s like there’s a big open goal, but no one wants to put the ball in the net.
“But we’ve not missed our chance. There’s still a huge amount of points to go and we’ve seen how wacky and crazy things can be of late. One weekend it’s Rubens, then mine, then Seb. We’re all over the place. Auto Racing Daily
Rubens Barrichello adamant that he will not let the intense pressure of a championship battle effect his driving.
“It’s positive my season has come alive. As for the pressure, it is something that you create in your own head,” Barrichello said.
“I guess pressure will always exist, but I’m quite cool and I’ve been there and done that. It helps that I’ve been with a team such as Ferrari and I’ve seen what happens and lived through it.
“Looking at it, my chances are bigger here. The team cannot say they are going to support one driver over another, because Red Bull are right there as well. They have to support both, and I feel good about that.” SkySports
Pos Driver Team Points 1 Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes 72 2 Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 56 3 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 53 4 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 51.5 5 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 34 6 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 30.5 7 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 27 8 Jarno Trulli Toyota 22.5 9 Felipe Massa Ferrari 22 10 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 17 11 Timo Glock Toyota 16 12 Fernando Alonso Renault 16 13 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 10 14 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Mercedes 8 15 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 8 16 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 3 17 Sebastien Bourdais STR-Ferrari 2 18 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 0 19 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 0 20 Nelsinho Piquet Renault 0 21 Luca Badoer Ferrari 0 22 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 0 23 Romain Grosjean Renault 0
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