Vettel wins, Button struggles, title comes alive

The battle for the 2009 world championship came alive on Sunday, as Sebastian Vettel took a 7 point bite out of Jenson Button's big lead.

The German driver is now 25 points behind Brawn's Button with nine races to go, after his and Mark Webber's Red Bulls were utterly dominant at Silverstone.

"To be here today and to have a car which showed a clean pair of heels to everyone was very special," said the RB5's designer Adrian Newey, who collected the constructors' trophy from the podium.

Button's sixth place finish, from his season-worst starting position of sixth, was also the Briton's worst result of his otherwise almost seamless 2009 campaign so far.

"We've definitely got problems with the car; the car's not performing as we'd hoped," said team boss Ross Brawn just before the 60-lap British Grand Prix.

"If you look at Jenson's position you'd have to say we've dropped back and it looks as if Red Bull have made some progress."

Rubens Barrichello, on the lowest step of the podium, said he was relieved to get through the weekend after receiving treatment for back pain from Toyota's Ricardo Ceccarelli and Toro Rosso physios.

Lewis Hamilton would have won no fans in the stewards' office with his post-race doughnut on the slowing down lap, but it was a gesture of appeasement to the partisan crowd after finishing sixteenth.