Fighting fifth means the world to Button

FORMULA ONE/ BRAZILIAN GRAND PRIX: JENSON BUTTON was crowned Formula One world champion in Brazil yesterday after a fearless drive in which he finally rediscovered the aggression missing from the second half of his campaign.

Under pressure from improved rivals throughout the season’s run-in, Button had seemed to tighten, often detrimentally opting for the cosy option of trying to bank safe points, all the while allowing others to eat into the commanding lead he had built with six wins from the first seven grands prix of the year.

But yesterday in Sao Paulo, after once again being hamstrung by a qualifying session that left him stranded in 14th on the grid while team-mate and chief title rival Rubens Barrichello grabbed pole, Button chose the only avenue left open to him – power, pace and aggression – the Brawn GP driver climbing nine places to an eventual fifth place, enough on a day when Barrichello slumped to eighth and remaining title contender Sebastian Vettel finished fourth.

As ever with Button’s campaign this year, there were moments of luck attached. A rare weekend of potency from BMW-Sauber and a characteristically all-or-nothing drive from Robert Kubica saw Barrichello dropped to third after Webber had initially eclipsed the Brazilian in the first round of pit stops.

If that handed the initiative to Button, he was further boosted by McLaren’s acuity, the team seizing the early safety car opportunity to fuel Lewis Hamilton for a single stop more, a move which pushed the 2008 championship into the points mix and allowed him to eventually pass Barrichello for third.

And Button was aided again when, in that move, Hamilton appeared to make contact with Barrichello, the Brazilian left with a slow puncture which, after a third stop, demoted him to eighth.

But Button was making his own luck too. When the first corner crashes had cleared and the safety car had left the track, ninth-placed Button immediately muscled past Renault’s Romain Grosjean to move into the points.

Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams was dismissed a lap later and, on lap 24, Button, who had been bravely fended off by impressive Toyota debutant Kamui Kobayashi, finally hustled through to sixth. The pit stops saw him see-saw back and forth, but when Barrichello was finally dropped back with a handful of laps left, Button’s moment arrived.

First Webber crossed the line for his second career win, then Kubica, Hamilton and Vettel flashed past. Then it was Button’s turn, his engine backed off, hands pumping in the air, he thundered under the chequered flag waved by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa to claim the title.

“I’m world champion baby, yeah,” he said afterwards. “It’s all I’ve aimed for. Twenty-one years ago I jumped into a car dreaming of this. I love winning, but I never expected to be world champion.”

As his lead dwindled over the past few months others had felt the same. After victory in six of the first seven events, Button’s grip on the title began to loosen. He took a single podium finish in the eight races leading up to Brazil.

After scoring five front-row starts in the first nine races he started no higher than fifth in the remaining races of his title hunt.

But perhaps the mark of a champion is doing enough, eking out results when they should be beyond him. In Singapore he qualified a poor 11th, but climbed to fifth. In Italy, sixth on the grid was converted into second. And all the while his rivals failed to match his consistency.

Barrichello may have taken two wins from the past six outings, but when he wasn’t winning he was clinging on to low points-scoring positions and he failed to match Button’s ability to trade trouble for relative triumph. Vettel too blossomed in the season run-in, winning in Japan to vault back into the title race. But too often the German’s Red Bull Racing car let him down – three retirements and a succession of race weekend engine failures seeing him ping-pong in and out of title contention.

And it was Button’s ability as a racer, his talent for finding the gaps that allowed him to score points when it seemed impossible that were singled out by his team boss Ross Brawn, whose debutant team also secured the constructors’ title yesterday.

“We made hard work of it over the second half of the year,” he said. “But we’ve done it, and it’s very special. It’s going to take a while to set in.

“As for Jenson, he’s a fantastic racer and on the day he had a great race. He knew what he had to do. We lost a little bit of pace in the car compared to some of our rivals over the second half of the season, but he’s stuck with it and deserves everything he’s got.”

Asked how it felt to have the words world champion attached to his name, Button didn’t hesitate.

“That,” he grinned, “sounds perfect”!