Button not expecting team support role

The out-going world champion reckons that with Hamilton needing to win with Fernando Alonso not scoring, and both Red Bulls also taking lowly finishes, there is little he could do to assist his team-mate anyway.

Instead Button is focusing on helping McLaren defend its 32-point advantage over Ferrari in their battle for second in the constructors' championship. He has qualified fourth for the race.

"Second in the constructors' is important to the team even though we can't win it, so that's the aim for tomorrow," said Button.

"It's very difficult for Lewis to win the championship unless the other three guys pretty much aren't in the race, so it's just a case of get as many points as I can, and I'm looking forward to it.

"[Hamilton] still needs 24 points and me finishing in front of Alonso - unless I'm finishing ninth - it doesn't really help Lewis.

"We're among the championship contenders, which you could say means we're going to be in their way, but we can't hold back, so we're going to be out there trying to get as many points as we can."

Although qualifying seems to have strengthened Alonso's position, as he starts in third, two places ahead of nearest points rival Mark Webber, Button said it was still not safe to declare any of the title contenders a favourite for the championship.

"I still haven't got a clue - we haven't started the race yet," he replied when asked who his money would be on.

"If it finishes like it is, Alonso still wins the championship. But after Turn 1 it could be different to what it is now, so there is no favourite still."

Button added that he was delighted with his car in qualifying, particularly having been unhappy with its performance in practice.

"It was much better than yesterday - I was nowhere yesterday," he said.

"Q3 was very good, Q2 was reasonably good. In Q1 I had a massive brake vibration issue that I was struggling with. It got better through qualifying, but I still had a vibration, which doesn't help with the front locking problem.

"I'm happy with the car, it's just a pity on that last lap I went off the circuit in the last sector.

"Yesterday I was really struggling with the car with lower downforce. Today we put the same downforce level on that Lewis is running and it seems good, I'm pretty happy with the car. I've been tweaking the car all day and I've made a big leap from where I was yesterday."