Hamilton: Button a great F1 champion

Button sealed his first championship with a fifth place at the Brazilian Grand Prix last Sunday, succeeding Hamilton the sport's world champion.

The McLaren driver reckons Button is worthy champion that will make his country proud.

"He knows that I've been supporting him all year, and I've seen him and given him my congratulations," said Hamilton on his website. "I've been saying for months that he'd be a worthy world champion and I think he'll be a great ambassador for our sport.

"It's great that the title will stay in Great Britain for another year, and I'd like to think that we'll both be up there next year fighting alongside each other to ensure that we keep bringing it back home to home soil.

"We both want to make our country proud, and you couldn't really have asked for Jenson to do any more this season: he's won six races and he's always been in control of himself and been a great asset for the Brawn GP team. He will make a great champion.

"I'm proud of what he's done - both him and his team - and I think he'll come to Abu Dhabi with that weight off his shoulders and ready to make a real race of it. It would be fantastic for Britain if we could get a great double result at the last race of the season."

Hamilton advised Button to take his time to enjoy the feeling and let it sink in slowly.

"Becoming world champion is a strange and unreal feeling," he added. "I heard on Sunday that Jenson kept on saying, I'm champion, I'm world champion, and I kind of knew exactly what he meant. It's all too much to take in at once - especially in one day.

"For me, I still don't really think of myself as world champion - of course, when I first saw the number one on my car, it really meant something, and when I arrived at Melbourne for the first race, it also meant something new to me. But I still have the same determination to succeed that I've always had.

"My only advice for Jenson would be to let it slowly sink in, and to enjoy it. Being champion will pull you in directions that you hadn't previously thought about, and it's all about resetting your balance, finding calmness and refocusing for the new challenges ahead.

"But it's also an incredibly uplifting feeling, a total relief and it brings something special to your life. He'll be a great champion."