source Autosport
By Jonathan Noble and Pablo Elizalde Monday, September 14th 2009, 13:59 GMT
Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Italian GPLewis Hamilton is predicting a hard battle between Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello for this year's drivers' championship.
Barrichello won the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, leading Brawn team-mate Button to reduce the gap to the Briton to 14 points with four races left.
Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber are nearly out of contention, being 26 and 28.5 points behind Button.
Reigning champion Hamilton reckons the Brawn pair are now unstoppable and he says consistency will decide this year's winner.
"Team-mates can clearly race for the championship, as we saw in 2007. But I can tell you, it's going to be hard battle," Hamilton said. "They're both doing a fantastic job, really, their pace was incredible over the weekend.
"They're unstoppable, but we've updates coming, so I think we will be able to compete with them in some of the future races, but they were really great this weekend, and they both did a solid job.
"Rubens has pulled some serious speed out from somewhere, and they are both going to be applying pressure to each other, so it is open to both of them.
"I guess it will come down to who is the most consistent."
Hamilton believes both Button and Barrichello are prepared to handle the pressure thanks to their experience.
"They are both extremely experienced drivers. They both know what to do," he said. "I wouldn't say it's all in the mind. They've just got to get on with their job, which they will do."
The McLaren driver was set to finish third behind Barrichello and Button in the Monza race before he crashed with less than two laps to go when trying to catch the championship leader.
Hamilton admitted he was pushing so hard because he didn't have much to lose.
"If we were leading or fighting for the world championship it would be a slightly different scenario, and perhaps I would have put a lot more thought into just getting the points, as we've learned in the past," Hamilton added.
"But I still wanted to win. I wanted to catch them up and overtake, so I gave it my absolute all.
"Ninety-nine times out of 100 I would have finished the race, but every now and then, if you go through my whole career, I'm bound to make small mistakes.
"I don't believe this one is as costly as if we were leading the championship, so I'm upset, but I'm looking forward.
"I'm just a racer. I'm more a hardcore racer than most people anticipate."
