• 2009 Championship

Button is a worthy champion - Hamilton

As Britain boasts back-to-back champions for the first time in forty years - when Graham Hill handed his crown over to Jackie Stewart in 1969 - outgoing world champion Lewis Hamilton has hailed his successor Jenson Button a worthy champion.

In an uncanny repeat of last year's Brazilian Grand Prix, where a Briton driving car number 22 finished fifth to beat his Brazilian rival to the world title, Button secured his first championship in the penultimate race of the season, and Hamilton has urged the Brawn driver to enjoy his reign as the world number one.

"My only advice for Jenson would be to let it slowly sink in, and to enjoy it," said the 2008 champion. "Being champion will pull you in directions that you hadn't previously thought about, and it's all about resetting your balance, finding calmness and refocusing for the new challenges ahead. But it's also an incredibly uplifting feeling, a total relief and it brings something special to your life. He'll be a great champion."

Button has already set his sights on becoming the first Briton to defend a title, and Hamilton hopes that the title may be in British hands for a third straight year, a feat last achieved in 1965. Hamilton said: "It's great that the title will stay in Great Britain for another year, and I'd like to think that we'll both be up there next year fighting alongside each other to ensure that we keep bringing it back to home soil."

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