Formula One:Jenson Button believes a measured approach to the final two races of the Formula One season will see the Brawn GP driver land his first Formula One world championship.
Button came home eighth in the Japanese Grand Prix thanks to a relatively untroubled drive once he had passed Heikki Kovalainen and Adrian Sutil after the pair had come together going into the final chicane at Suzuka on lap 13, although he had to withstand late pressure from Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber.
Sebastian Vettel won the 53-lap race after dominating from start to finish in his Red Bull to thrust the German back into the title race but more importantly for Button, team-mate Rubens Barrichello could only finish seventh after being handed a morning reprieve following Saturday's five-place penalty stemming from qualifying.
The Brazilian was promoted four places to sixth in a revised grid that saw Button down in 10th but he failed to capitalise, collecting just two points to trail the 29-year-old by 14. Vettel, meanwhile, is now 16 points behind Button.
The championship picture is reminiscent of the 2007 season when Lewis Hamilton led Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen by 17 points and McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso by 12 going into the final two races in China and Brazil - the venue for this year's penultimate race a week on Sunday.
Hamilton crashed out in Shanghai and could only finish seventh at Interlagos, Raikkonen won both races and so took the title by a solitary point from the Englishman and Alonso.
Button, though, is not about to open the door for either Barrichello or Vettel to snatch a maiden drivers' triumph from his grasp.
"It's all about mistakes," he said.
"With them (McLaren), they had a very fast car but for whatever reason, they didn't finish races. Obviously, finishing races, picking up points, we obviously want the best result possible which is to win races and we'll get as close to that as we can but it's about not making mistakes, that's the most important thing."
That approach was exemplified at Suzuka as instead of choosing the soft option tyre for his final stint in a bid to make up places, Button decided to play it safe and follow Barrichello home.
"My pace compared to the cars around me was good on the prime so that was the safest option for us," he added.
"Our pace was nowhere near what the Red Bulls were, they were staggeringly quick, over half a second quicker than us a lap. But compared to the people I was racing, the pace was good."