Button needs Alonso to suffer slice of misfortune

Following a wretched run of results which had seen him collect just seven points from six races, Button was left breathing a considerable sigh of relief after Sunday’s German Grand Prix.

The 32-year-old finally returned to form, with his third place at the flag later upgraded to second by the Hockenheim stewards after Sebastian Vettel was penalised for an illegal pass on Button.

It was just reward for the angst Button has gone through over the past few months, but he still had to contend with Alonso widening the gap at the top of the drivers’ championship as the Spaniard won his 30th Formula 1 race.

Button has fallen 86 points adrift of Alonso, whose amazing consistency of late is underlined by the fact he is two races shy of equalling Michael Schumacher’s nine-year-old record of 24 consecutive results in the points.

Button concedes the gap is “massive” but as he can testify, one poor weekend can be the catalyst for a woeful run.

Button said: “Fernando has been phenomenal these last few races, he has done a great job.

“But it could easily go so very wrong. If you have one bad race where you don’t finish, you get to the next and think ‘I have to get back up there’, only for you or the team to make a mistake.

“I’m not saying Ferrari are going to make mistakes. I’m just saying you never know what can happen.

“We just have to hope they do get a little bit of bad luck like we’ve had. Ferrari have us and the Red Bulls in competition, and if we all do a good job that could mean Alonso finishing fifth, or even worse with Lotus also in the mix.

“It could easily turn around for him, but at the moment, I must say he is doing a great job and he deserves to be where he is.”