• Belgian Grand Prix

McLaren not focused on Alonso

Jenson Button has an 88-point gap to Fernando Alonso to try and close © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Belgian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Jenson Button
• |
• Lewis Hamilton

• Teams:
• McLaren

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are not putting too much emphasis on beating Fernando Alonso in today's Belgian Grand Prix despite his championship lead.

Alonso has a gap of 47 points over Hamilton and 88 points over pole-sitter Button with nine races remaining this season. While Hamilton acknowledged that finishing ahead of his championship rivals would be a target at Spa, he said the unpredictability of the season and number of races left meant it wasn't a necessity.

"It is a long race, and finishing ahead of Fernando is important - as it is all the guys in front - it's good to see some of the other guys up front who can take points away from all of us if the race goes well for them," Hamilton said. "But the racing nowadays is so open; Fernando won from [11th in Valencia] a few races back, so it just shows that nothing is impossible and we just have to be positive and regardless of what the outcome is we still have a long way to go."

With the gap bigger for Button, taking greater points off Alonso is more important. However, he said that having the likes of Kamui Kobayashi and Pastor Maldonado in position to possibly beat Alonso also meant he was vulnerable to their pace.

"Maybe not for turn one!" Button said when asked if having Kobayashi and Maldonado (before his penalty) behind would help. "We don't know how quick they're going to be, the Sauber's been extremely quick in the race so is that better or not? I don't know, we'll have to see. The important thing is we've put the car in a good position but we've still got a long race and we've got to make the best of what we've achieved."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.