Jenson Button insists he has "absolutely" no blame in the accident with Seb Vettel that put him out of the Belgian GP and landed a solid blow to his title chances.
Button was taken out of Sunday's Belgian by Championship rival Vettel, who lost control of his Red Bull racer, slamming into the side of the Button's McLaren as he approached the final chicane.
The impact damaged Button's radiator, cost him a possible 18 points and "massively hurt" his chances of retaining the World title as the leading duo in the standings, Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber, finished first and second, extending their lead at the top of the table.
However, adding insult to injury, Red Bull's team boss Christian Horner later put part of the blame for the shunt on Button's shoulders, accusing the Brit of braking too early into the Bus Stop Chicane.
Button, though, insists that is not true and even has the McLaren telemetary to back up his claims.
"No, absolutely not," he told his website when asked about Horner's accusations.
"Obviously, I'd lost the floor-plate of one of my front wing endplates - and that was affecting the car's balance - but I didn't brake any earlier for the Bus Stop on the lap of the crash.
"I'd had to crank more front wing in to help the handling, and that had made the back-end a bit more skittish, so I was just driving carefully. I knew I still had good straight-line speed, so I was concentrating on getting into the slower corners cleanly, so that I could maximise my traction at the exit and maintain the gap along the straights. But that's just common sense when you're racing.
"After the race, I actually checked the data with my race engineer, and it shows that I braked at exactly the same point on the lap before the collision.
"We even looked at the braking profile, and that also showed that, at the point of impact - about 1.5s after I'd started applying the brakes - I'd travelled exactly the same distance on both laps. So to suggest I'd braked earlier wouldn't be accurate."
With six races remaining, and a total of 150 points to play for, Button trails his team-mate Hamilton by 35 points. And although the gap may seem large, Button is encouraged by Hamilton's victory in Spa on Sunday as he reckons it's a sign that McLaren are back to winning ways.
"We were very pleased with our performance. We were on the pace for the whole weekend, and we had one of the fastest cars - probably the fastest car in mixed conditions, so that's all very positive.
"While Spa wasn't a personal highlight for me, I think Lewis's win came at exactly the right time for the whole team - Hungary was probably the low point of our season, so to be able to bounce back so strongly will have given the team the assurance that we're headed in the right direction for the rest of the Championship.
"We know it won't be easy, and that some circuits won't favour our car as much as Spa, but we're heading into the final six races in full-on battle mode. We know how to win and we want to keep winning."
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Q&A with Jenson Button
