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Formula 1

Jenson Button is refusing to be suckered in by Mark Webber's mind games ahead of this weekend's German Grand Prix.

Earlier this week Webber suggested Button had the title wrapped up given the considerable cushion he holds over his rivals.

That was despite Red Bull Racing's dominant one-two at the British Grand Prix three weeks ago when Vettel led home Australian Webber, with Button a lowly sixth.

Vettel's victory ended Button's run of four successive wins, yet heading into the German's home grand prix on Sunday he still holds a commanding advantage.

Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello trails by 23 points, whilst Vettel is 25 points behind and Webber 28.5, leaving the latter to conclude it is all over bar the shouting.

With nine races remaining Button smiled ruefully when asked for his thoughts before stating: "You never know if it's reality or someone trying to play mind games.

"He made some nice comments, but it's not over, Jesus! We've only had half the season.

"I remember (Fernando) Alonso leading the championship by more points than me in '06 with Michael (Schumacher), and yet they went into the last race with pretty much the same points.

"So much can change, but I have to say I'd rather be me in a Brawn than Sebastian or Mark in a Red Bull."

Although far from comfortable with his current position, Button is relishing the challenge the remainder of the season threatens to pose after dominating the first seven races, winning six of them.

"You are never comfortable, unless you have enough points that they can't beat you in the championship," assessed Button.

"So much can happen, and as soon as you have one issue everything else follows.

"At Silverstone I started sixth on the grid, yet was stuck behind Jarno (Trulli) and my race was finished.

"We just have to make sure we don't make any mistakes in qualifying and in the race, and then we have to be as close to the Red Bulls as we possibly can.

"Obviously, if the Red Bulls beat us in every race they are going to win the championship easily, which means we have to fight them.

"We cannot sit back and relax, so it's not comfortable, for sure, which is good because of the excitement and the adrenalin.

"After Silverstone the guys at the factory stepped it up a gear and the parts that were coming in three races' time are now coming in two races, so no, you are never comfortable."

Button was forced to settle for the third fastest time at the end of today's two 90-minute practice sessions at a chilly Nurburgring, with temperatures a season low 13 degrees centigrade.

The major surprise was the sight of Lewis Hamilton at the top of the timesheets, with the world champion edging out Vettel in the closing stages of the afternoon period.

Hamilton's lap of one minute 32.149secs came shortly after he had spun his McLaren loaded with upgrades for this race, notably to the aerodynamics.

The work has been rushed, which is why Hamilton finished 1.6secs ahead of team-mate Heikki Kovalainen because unfortunately for the Finn, his car has yet to be kitted out with the new parts.

"We've still a long way to go but, most importantly, these new upgrades are pushing us in the right direction," remarked Hamilton.

"It's a work in progress, but the guys back at the factory have done an incredible job to get these parts to the circuit.

"I've even heard of one guy working a 36-hour non-stop shift to build these parts, which is incredible.

"Hopefully we'll now do our job at the track and try to keep everything moving forward.

"It's still early days, and we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, but I'm hopeful of being able to get into Q3 tomorrow and look at scoring a couple of points on Sunday afternoon."

If Hamilton does make it into the top-10 shootout it would end a miserable run of failing to making it out of Q1 at the last three races.

Behind Webber in fourth, Toyota's Jarno Trulli again faired well as he was fifth, and with the gremlins taken care of after a truncated morning run, Adrian Sutil was sixth in his Force India.

For the team it was an up-and-down day as Giancarlo Fisichella was also sixth in the morning, only to then crash out in the afternoon when he spun into a barrier, ripping off his nose cone.

There was also drama in the paddock when German police attempted to impound the team's assets due to a contractual dispute just before first practice.

The situation was swiftly resolved by Force India officials, with the promise their weekend will continue without further disruption.