JENSON BUTTON'S TITLE NIGHTMARE

JENSON BUTTON has revealed the nightmare that lay behind his Formula One world title.

The great Briton clinched the championship with a scorching drive in Brazil. But as he prepared for this afternoon's final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, the Brawn GP superstar confessed he:

• SUFFERED from stress and lack of sleep as pressure mounted.

• DOUBTED his own ability.

• FEARED he'd blown his chance of glory through poor qualifying results.

• NEEDED heart-to-heart talks with team boss Ross Brawn.

Button, 29, also admits he blew his top after a disastrous qualifying session at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Button won six of the season's first seven races. But as a 26-point lead was eaten away by his team-mate Rubens Barrichello and the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, he tried to hide the tension.

"You don't want to show that you're stressed," he said. "It's a weakness and you bottle it up inside you.

"The championship is over almost 10 months and that's a long time to be on the edge of your seat. You go to sleep thinking about it, you wake up thinking about it.

"You sleep less and when you are going out for qualifying so much runs through your mind.

"When you start worrying about things, that's when you want people around you who understand who you are."

As Button battled with his mental demons he confided in Brawn, the man behind Michael Schumacher's seven world crowns.

"I spent a lot of time with Ross," said Button. "We'd discuss Michael's years of fighting for the championship.

"It was good to hear Ross's view. He knows it's never easy in F1 even if you have a superior car. You can be a very positive person but you still have doubts and weaknesses."

Button's nerves were at their height during September's Singapore Grand Prix.

He qualified only 11th and then furiously let rip to Brawn over the team radio: "This is how to lose a championship!"

Button added: "Qualifying in the first half of the season was fantastic for me. I did some very special laps, probably better than I ever have done in F1.

"But then towards the end, when really I just had to do an average lap to get into the top 10, I pushed really hard.

"You want to be in front of your team-mate, you want to be close to the front, but just one lock-up can cost you 10 places and that's exactly what happened a couple of times.

"Even after qualifying in Brazil it was the same situation. I thought: 'This shouldn't be this difficult!' There were times when I thought the title had gone."

Button qualified a lowly 14th in Brazil but his storming fifth-place finish in the race clinched the title.

He produced four stunning overtaking moves to confirm him as Britain's 10th world champion.

"I turned it all around in the race," he said. "Every time I needed to make a move, it happened."

Meanwhile, Button's future will be thrashed out this week after talks that should pave the way for Mercedes to buy a 75 per cent stake in Brawn.

Button wants a £5million rise to take his pay to £8m a year and needs the investment to go through to fund it.

But Mercedes would have to offload their 40 per cent holding in the McLaren team.

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