Vettel talks up title hopes after closing the gap on Button

(AFP/GETTY IMAGE)

Jenson Button may want to pop his ear plugs in when he next bumps into Sebastian Vettel, because the German is confident he can overhaul the Brawn driver and win the world championship that has seemed the Briton's for the taking for the entire season.

Button's points lead over his team-mate Rubens Barrichello sank to 14 points and to 16 over Red Bull's Vettel, who won the Japanese Grand Prix at the weekend and the German is in bullish mood.

"It can still be done," Vettel said. "It is looking much better now. We are here to fight and the best thing we can do is win like we did on Sunday. I think we have a great car, still improving, the boys back in the factory are pushing very hard. We will see what we can do. We will focus on us, on ourselves, and simply try to win. Whatever Rubens and Jenson are doing it is in their hands, so I will keep on pushing.

"I was a little surprised to see the Brawns struggling [at Suzuka]. Generally, a good car is a good car, and as they have proven, especially at the beginning of the season, their car is very competitive. I think we were all a little bit surprised."

Vettel believes his Red Bull will be well-suited to Interlagos, which is next up, but says Abu Dhabi, the final track of the season, is an unknown quantity. "Brazil is a track we know, Abu Dhabi is unknown for everyone. Just looking at the last two races, we've been on totally different circuits: Singapore was rough, bumpy, a street circuit and very low speed and here, high speed."

While Button continues to play the percentage game that his six wins earlier in the season helped to make possible as he built a huge points advantage, Vettel needs to keep winning.

"I will fight until the end, until the last breath. I think our task from now on is pretty straightforward: we have to push ourselves to the maximum and try to win."

Vettel then mentioned Lewis Hamilton's capitulation in the latter stages of the 2007 season when he allowed Kimi Raikkonen to steal the title.

"Two years back, I think Kimi had quite a big gap [on the McLaren driver Hamilton] with two races to go. Everyone said to Lewis it will not be a problem, sitting in one of the most competitive cars, just get a couple of points. But sometimes things just don't work your way. Anything is possible. The bottom line is that we're here to fight."