Lauda Dismisses Dirty Fight between Red Bull Drivers

Part of the reason why Jenson Button was not out-of-this-world worried about his 5th place in Germany was because Red Bull's Mark Webber won the race. In Button's view, that meant good news for at least two reasons: first, Vettel recuperated only 4 points in the title fight, and second, the German driver will now have to fight Webber in the championship.

The fact that the two Red Bull drivers will be battling each other instead of going for a one-driver strategy for the second part of the season is looked upon as a great news by Button, who thinks the two will take points out of each other in the closing stages of 2009. Red Bull's very team principal Christian Horner insisted, after the German race, that there is no No 1 driver at Milton Keynes.

Triple F1 champion and former consultant for Ferrari – a team well-known for its strategic backing of only one driver for the world title – Niki Lauda insisted, however, that the battle for the championship between Vettel and Webber will be far from “dirty”.

“It's going to be a great duel, but not a dirty one. Sebastian is too intelligent for that. And Webber is a gentleman,” Lauda was quoted as saying for German newspaper Bild.

Button lost no less than 11 points to both Red Bull drivers during the course of the last 2 rounds – Great Britain and Germany – and is now only 21 points ahead of Vettel in the standings.

“I still have a 21 point lead so it's not that bad but if we continue like this we're not going to keep it,” admitted Button after the Nurburgring race.