Button says the start will be key

The pair will start from the second row behind pole-sitter Fernando Alonso and Vettel, and with overtaking opportunities being limited around the Marina Bay circuit, Button said that everything hinged on the run to the first corner.

"The start is the key," he said. "To get a good start is really important. My problem is that I've got the same car as my team-mate in front, and he'll get as good a start as me so I'll not be able to overtake him at the start - although you never know into Turn 1.

"But Vettel has been making a lot of poor starts lately, and I'm not saying it's his fault, but the pace hasn't been good off the line for the Red Bulls. So it's a positive for us, and we'll see what happens."

Button said that he was reasonably happy with his own starting position of fourth despite not quite getting the most out of his tyres on his best lap.

"On my first run in Q3 I pushed very hard out of the box, because I was the first car and we wanted to make sure that we got two runs in for both cars," he said.

"The first sector I pushed quite hard and I damaged the rear tyres quite a bit, so I struggled then. So on the second lap I thought I'd take it a bit easier on the out lap, but then I didn't have any tyre temperature when I got to the first sector. So I struggled with that, but the second and third sectors were good. I set the quickest time in the middle sector. But I didn't have the first sector, so it cost me a few tenths."

The Briton also said that he was confident that he would be more competitive in race conditions.

"The pace was good yesterday with high fuel," he said. "Mark [Webber] is the car behind me and I think he's probably struggled the most out of all of us on high fuel. I am happy with the car I have for the race, and reasonably happy with fourth, and I think we're a lot quicker compared to the red Bulls than maybe they thought."