Jenson Button has vowed to throw caution to the wind as he fights his closest rival, Brawn GP team-mate and Italian Grand Prix winner Rubens Barrichello for the world championship title.

With a 14-point lead over the veteran Brazilian, and a maximum of 40 to be earned from the remaining four races, Button could follow in Barrichello's wheeltracks all the way to a maiden title.

But the British ace, who bounced back from a recent run of poor displays to take second place to Barrichello at Monza, wants to become champion the right way - by winning races.

He said: "Rubens is going to be tough to beat for the rest of the year, I know that. But I'm up for the challenge and I'm very excited about it.

"I finished second to Rubens this time, but I go to the next Grand Prix in Singapore feeling positive, and I go there looking for a victory."

Button's performance in Italy proved the perfect riposte to critics, among them motor racing knights Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart, who had questioned his ability to handle the growing pressure of maintaining his title race lead.

Having taken six of the season's opening seven rounds, Button had faltered to the extent of scoring just 11 points from the five races leading to Italy.

But after boosting his total tally to 80 points in the final European Grand Prix of this year's calendar, Button insisted: "The talk of pressure never came out of my mouth. I know I'm in a very good position."

After celebrating his team's fourth one-two finish of the season, which puts the constructors' championship almost beyond the reach of pursuing Red Bull, Brawn confirmed there would be no team orders between now and the end of the campaign.

"We'll leave them to it," he said. "I ask only that they compete openly and fairly. They have got to work together and it all has to be on top of the table."

Brawn GP's one-stop strategy for their two drivers proved spot on, but Lewis Hamilton, on a two-stopper, tried too hard to make up for the extra time and crashed heavily on the last lap while lying third.

Hamilton's accident, which ended any chance of defending his title, promoted Sebastian Vettel into eighth for a point that keeps his challenge alive, albeit 26 points off the lead.

The German, who refuses to give in, said:"The championship isn't over. We're here to win races and the championship. We have to focus on that. All the rest is out of our hands."

Away from the track it has emerged that Alain Prost, the former world champion and one of the all-time greats of Formula One, could become Renault team principle if Flavio Briatore is forced out of office by the 'crashgate' scandal.

Briatore and technical director Pat Symonds will represent Renault at next Monday's World Motor Sport Council hearing into claims by Nelson Piquet Jnr that he deliberately crashed, as requested, during last year's Singapore Grand Prix.

The resulting safety car period proved crucial to Piquet's team-mate, Fernando Alonso, going on to score a surprise victory.