Horner - Button will pay

Red Bull boss hoping his drivers can take advantage of poor form

Last updated: 31st August 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Horner - Button will pay

Horner: Ready for title challenge

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Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner is convinced that championship leader Jenson Button cannot afford to continue his poor run of form.

Button made an exceptional start to the current season, winning six of the first seven races and quickly taking a 26-point lead in the standings.

However, since his dominating win at the Turkish Grand Prix in June the Brawn GP driver's charge has faltered and team-mate Rubens Barrichello is now only 16 points adrift.

At the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, Button failed to finish a race for the first time this year after he was involved in a pile-up on the opening lap.

Horner thinks that his drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, both have a great chance of capturing the Formula One world title if Button's troubles continue.

"Rubens has taken 10 points out of him in the last two races and Sebastian six points here - and he's not had a good weekend since Istanbul in early June," he said.

Punished

"He can't continue to have race weekends like he's had without being punished points wise in the next couple of events.

"It's still a four-horse race between now and the end of the championship. It's all left to play for, and I think there's going to be another twist in the championship between now and the end of the year.

"Sebastian has moved to within 19 points and, although Mark didn't score, both still have a real chance of overhauling him."

Vettel believes that anything is possible as far as the championship is concerned due to the large variation in the pace of different cars from one race to the next.

"It is still open, but the championship is a bit crazy right now," he said.

"When I followed it as a little boy it was always pretty boring. You more or less knew at the first race who was competitive.

"But as we saw, Force India were quick over the weekend - and most likely they will be quick in Monza (Italian Grand Prix).

"So it is up and down, which shows how important it is to be consistent, which has not been our strength.

"But we are here to fight and we are still in reach. I took six points out of Jenson, which is a good thing."

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