Formula One: Button says he won’t retaliate to Vettel fire

Jenson Button has promised Sebastian Vettel he will not go gunning for the newly-crowned two-time Formula 1 world champion if there is a repeat of their Suzuka showdown.

Button was initially angered by Vettel’s aggressive tactics at the start of last Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix when the German swerved over to the Briton’s line, forcing him onto the grass.

Following the race Button confronted Vettel and asked him whether that was his approach to racing in the future, suggesting he would adopt similar tactics if that were the case.

Button, however, has since softened his approach, realising there would be no point in fighting fire with fire as it would only end in disaster.

“You still have to be intelligent about the way you go racing,” said Button. “If you know he is not going to back out and he is going to push you on the grass, you are not going to do anything.

“If I hadn’t have backed off, and I had to completely lift off the throttle, then we would have both ended up in the wall.”

In the end it was Button who had the last laugh by claiming his third win of the season to leave him on a high coming into this weekend’s Korean Grand Prix that yesterday started in the wet.

Throughout both 90-minute practice sessions rain dominated, with the McLarens blindingly quick as Lewis Hamilton edged Button by a tenth of a second, leaving Vettel 1.8 seconds adrift in third.