Vettel wins as Button grabs point

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel convincingly won the Japanese Grand Prix to keep his slim title hopes alive but championship leader Jenson Button stayed in control.

Cool Button pounced on an early tangle up ahead to finish in eighth, although a late safety car denied his Brawn team being crowned constructors' champions.

The Englishman now leads the title race from team-mate Rubens Barrichello, who came seventh in Japan, by 14 points.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli snatched second at Suzuka ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Red Bull's Vettel led from start to finish after defending his pole position from reigning world champion Hamilton off the start.

The young German grabbed 10 points with a stunning drive and now sits 16 points behind single-point scoring Button in the championship with 20 to play for.

Ferrari's in-form Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth at the famously demanding figure-of-eight circuit ahead of Williams driver Nico Rosberg with BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld in sixth.

After the race Button claimed that Rosberg illegally set his best sector time under the late safety flag.

And though stewards from governing body the FIA found Rosberg had exceeded the speed limit during that period, they decided to take no action because telemetry data proved the German was "prevented from being able to accurately follow timing information".

The drivers' title fight now moves to the season's penultimate race on 18 October in Brazil where Button, who recovered from a poor start at Suzuka, can land the title he covets.

Brawn came so close to clinching the constructors' championship in Sunday's race in their debut season, and now need just half a point more to take over from Ferrari as champions.

Their celebrations were cruelly put on hold after a late safety car came out following Jaime Alguersuari's crash in his Toro Rosso with eight laps remaining.

Jenson Button

Barrichello had been running in sixth for most of the race and that would have been enough, but the safety car allowed Rosberg to jump up the pack from seventh.

Once Vettel maintained his position in front of the chasing pack from pole, the 22-year-old rapidly built a three-second gap in the crucial early stages from McLaren's Hamilton, who said it became "impossible to keep up with him".

"What a race," said Vettel. "We were pretty confident of defending the start but it was closer than I thought it would be going into Turn One.

"I had the inside so it was my advantage. After that it was head down and I tried to pull a gap. It all worked out and I was pretty much in control until the end."

With smooth-running Vettel's third victory of the season rarely in doubt up front, much of the focus turned to Button's progress as he attempted to recover from starting the race in 10th - a nightmare position stuck in the midfield.

That handicap was compounded when Button suffered a poor start and slipped back a place after McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen jumped up to eighth using his energy-boost [Kers] button.

Trailing the longer-fuelled Robert Kubica, Button pulled a classic overtaking manoeuvre on the Pole to regain 10th position during the fourth lap.

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