Jenson Button won the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday but it wasn't enough to stop Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel romping to his second Formula 1 title at Suzuka.
The German finished third behind Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari to become the youngest double world champion aged 24 and 98 days, and just the ninth to record back-to-back wins. Button's teammate Lewis Hamilton clashed with Ferrari's Felipe Massa yet again and suffered a puncture on his way to fifth, behind Red Bull's Mark Webber.
Vettel was made to sweat through an early race investigation by stewards after cutting off Button as he attempted to make a pass off the line, but no action was taken. Button made up a second on Vettel at the second round of pit stops to emerge as the race leader, only for his lead to be cut short while the safety car was on, with debris to be cleared from the track.
But Button put that aside and gradually built up a two-second lead by the halfway point, and he extended his lead when Vettel made his third tyre stop only to find himself stuck amidst the midfield runners. Button managed to stay out for a further two laps and despite returning to the track in third, he re-took the lead with 12 laps remaining to hold off the fast-finishing Alonso for his third win of the season.
Hamilton had made a good start passing Button to take second only for his rear-tyre puncture to hold him up, forcing him to pit on lap eight. And he suffered another collision with Massa, who he also came into contact with in Singapore, but escaped censure from the stewards. Michael Schumacher was sixth for Mercedes ahead of Massa, with Sergio Perez in the Sauber, Renault's Vitaly Petrov, and Schumacher's teammate Nico Rosberg making up the scoring places.
Pastor Maldonado was 14th for Grove-based Williams, ahead of Bruno Senna in 16th for Enstone-based Renault, one-place ahead of Williams' Rubens Barrichello.
