Formula One news

Negativity was getting to Button, says Brundle

Martin Brundle is convinced that no man other than Jenson Button would deserve more the Formula One world title of 2009. With one race still to go, the Brawn driver successfully wrapped up his first championship in Brazil although compatriot Brundle knows that the task has not been a simple one.

Brundle interviews title contender Rubens Barrichello at Interlagos

Having won six of the season's opening seven races for the newly-owned Brawn GP team, it looked to be a straight path to victory for Jenson Button in early June although no victories since Turkey raised questions in the international media.

"Button's recent cautious approach has prolonged this championship and generated talk of him not being a worthy Champion. I know that got to him," former driver and television commentator Brundle wrote on the BBC website. "He is quite a sensitive soul and he said that he felt physically sick after his dismal qualifying, but that he didn't want to show any weakness because that feeds his competitors."

Button caught Sébastien Buemi off-guard at the Senna S

Martin is sure, however, that the Frome man cannot be begrudged of the title. "Button led the championship all the way," Norfolk's Brundle continued. "He earned himself a comfort zone with the string of early victories and tried to throw it away a little bit recently, but to anybody who says he's not a true World Champion I'd say, 'Tell me who deserves it more this year'.

"I've watched every lap of 29-year-old Button's F1 career. He's laboured at it a bit; it took forever for him to get his first podium, forever to get his first win in 2006 and now here he is, nine years after his debut, with his first World Championship. Button has taken some flack, changing teams and making some terrible decisions in the past, but the quality and the silky smooth style has always been there - it's just taken a while to deliver."

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