Jenson Button has equated his chances of beating Sebastian Vettel to the World title as being like "challenging a four-year-old to a 100m race."
Button is, mathematically, the only man standing between Vettel and his second World title. But as the Red Bull driver needs just one point in the remaining five races to achieve the feat, Button concedes it won't happen.
"It's like challenging a four-year-old to a 100 metre race, you'd totally destroy him," Button told the Daily Mail.
The Brit, though, insists Vettel is the driver who deserves the World title this season, as, although he has the best car on the grid, he's the one who has done the best job with it.
"He has had best car for a number of races but he has also done an impeccable job with it," said Button. "You cannot say he does not deserve it. If he had made more mistakes you could question it but he has done a fantastic job with what he has.
"He has a team-mate who is very quick and he has had some very good races where he has had to fight a little bit more than just leading all the way. He is gaining experience; he is intelligent in the way he races. Only a driver can really see that in how he drives a race.
"You could say he has not had as much competition has in some other seasons but it is not his fault. He was given the car to do the job and he has done the job the team have asked for."
And Vettel once again did the job at Suzuka on Saturday afternoon when he claimed his 12th pole position of the season. However, it was a close one as Button was just 0.009s off the pace.
"Basically I was just building up until Q3 and thought the last lap would have been enough, but it was 0.009s not good enough. But there you go," he said in the post-race press conference.
"I felt like I got everything out of the car. I got a bit of oversteer on that last run, but I think that's just because I was pushing that little bit more.
"Fair play to the whole team for really fighting the Red Bulls around here on a circuit that they've dominated on for the last couple of years, I think it's a great job by everyone.
"It's not P1, it's not perfect, but second is still pretty good and I think we can race well from there."
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