A BRIT OF A STINKER

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Jun 21, 2009 | by BYRON YOUNG

FORMULA 1 - BRITISH GRAND PRIX: HOME GUARD SURRENDER LIVE ON BBC1 FROM 1PM

BRITAIN'S runaway championship leader Jenson Button warned fans there will be no fairytale at Silverstone.

After qualifying a seasonworst sixth, the 29-year-old admitted: "I haven't got a chance of winning the British Grand Prix. Just getting onto the podium will be difficult."

Button has won six times in a blistering start to the season. But the Frome flyer conceded, with a heavy heart, that it would not be seventh heaven for the sell-out 110,000 crowd expected today.

Button was more than half a second behind pole-holder Sebastian Vettel.

And his Brawn was almost half a second behind his own team-mate Rubens Barrichello on second, with Mark Webber, third, Jarno Trulli fourth and, surprisingly, Kazuki Nakajima for Williams, fifth.

Button's hard-earned 26point lead was seen as unassailable, and he was being hailed as a champion-in-waiting with half a season left.

But if the Red Bull duo, Vettel and Webber, have this kind of advantage for the rest of the year, the title is up for grabs.

Button has begun to think long-term and is looking to minimise the damage to his title hopes.

"I'm hugely disappointed. I don't give up on a race but a win is unlikely now," he said.

"I just couldn't get the temperature in the tyres. The important thing is just to get as many points as I can.

"It's damage-limitation. We are just not quick enough at the moment. I think the Red Bulls are going to be very quick and pretty much unbeatable."

Until now Button has preferred to focus on the racing and avoid the murky waters of the swirling political battle over the future of the sport.

But with the sport standing at the edge of the abyss and eight teams preparing a breakaway series, he pleaded with all sides to see sense.

"I came to F1 to race against the best drivers in the world and race in one of the top teams, against the top teams.

"I hope it will be resolved. Everyone is hoping for that but there's a long way to go. There is a sell-out crowd and they have come to enjoy the racing. They haven't come to see the politics."

Those sentiments were echoed by world champion Lewis Hamilton. But enjoyment may not be a word most will use today after qualifying was a double disaster for home fans.

Hamilton, the crowd's darling last year, also slumped to his worst qualifying position in eight races.

Just 12 months after he roared to the greatest race win of his career, he finds himself starting from the back row of the grid. Only Sebastien Buemi was slower.

Hamilton couldn't even contemplate a points place. "It's going to be very tough. I was hoping we might be able to score a point to be able to give a little bit back to the fans.

"All I can do is drive my heart out. Aiming for the top 15 is the only target for me right now."

A year ago he defied lashing rain, sliding cars and treacherous conditions to roar home 68 seconds clear and claim a full 10 points that put him at the top of the championship table.

Yesterday he was defeated by the one thing that mattered: the uncompetitive scrapheap candidate of a car.

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BEST BET

Patriotic punters need not despair - back the Williams team, as British as stiff upper lips and limp sandwiches. You can get 7/4 (Hills) that both their 'Brit' drivers get in the points. Come on Rosberg and Nakajima!