Button fears he can't help Hamilton

Button, who is all but out of the championship fight with two races to go, continued to struggle for pace at Interlagos, finishing outside the top ten in 11th position.

The world champion admitted he was disappointed with his showing, and said helping Hamilton in the race will be very hard now.

"It's been pretty tough for me all weekend. I've struggled with car quite bit to get a balance," said Button after qualifying.

"It was actually better in qualifying than it has been all weekend. I put new tyres on at the end of qualifying and the first lap was alright, but for the second the tyres were too damaged to get a lap out of them so I pitted.

"It's disappointing not to get in the top 10 but I've started from worse places here and done okay. It's not as disappointing as last year, but still pretty disappointing.

"As a supporting role it's pretty difficult when you're so far behind your team-mate, so if Lewis gets a good start in I'm not going to be able to help in that way. But I'm 11th, I started 14th last year and had a pretty good race, so we'll see what happens."

Button also admitted that his own title hopes are now over: "Before, there was a slither of hope of retaining the championship but now it's gone, it's basically impossible. My main aim is just to have some fun tomorrow and see how many points we can get.

Hamilton finished down in fourth position, the Briton pleased to at least be in the fight.

"It's better than nothing," said Hamilton. "I can't complain really. Just on that last lap I got a bit held up right at the last corner, someone was backing off in front of me.

"Unfortunately I lost a bit of time there, a little bit frustrating. But I'm still in the fight. It's quite cool that Hulkenberg is up there.

"We've got a good race pace I think. In the straight speed we are in a good position for tomorrow, I'm happy that I can at least battle from there."