Jenson Button admitted he was pleased to come through a difficult weekend in Singapore with little damage to his world championship hopes.

The Brawn GP driver looked set to see his rivals eat into his advantage at the top of the drivers' championship after a disappointing qualifying session on Saturday.

Button started Sunday's race with a 14-point lead over team-mate Rubens Barrichello but lined up two places behind the Brazilian in 11th.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel also had the ideal chance to close in on the two Brawns after securing a place on the front row alongside pole sitter Lewis Hamilton.

But Button remained calm and drove a smooth race under the lights on the Marina Bay street circuit to finish fifth as his title rivals faltered.

"It was a good race for me and I'm happy with fifth position and four more points today," he said.

"Getting ahead of Kazuki (Nakajima) off the line was key and that really made my race.

"The weekend hasn't been quite what we expected but it's good to come through from 11th on the grid to score points today.

"I'll go to Japan tomorrow feeling very positive and looking forward to the next race."

As the race entered the final few laps Button was holding onto fifth ahead of Barrichello.

The Brazilian strived to catch his team-mate but in the end was unable to find that bit extra and had to settle for sixth place.

As a result Button increased his lead over Barrichello to 15 points with three races remaining.

"My brakes were struggling and I couldn't fight anymore so we came home with sixth position," said Barrichello.

"It could have been a better weekend but I only lost a point to Jenson in the championship despite everything that happened so I'm staying positive."

While it was mixed emotions from Button and Barrichello, team principal Ross Brawn admitted he was a relieved man to see his drivers finish positively following a disappointing qualifying session.

Brawn are closing in on the constructors' championship as they lead Red Bull by 42.5 points.

"Jenson, Rubens and the team put in a very good performance today to achieve two points-scoring positions after what was a disappointing qualifying result for us yesterday," said Brawn.

"We will go away from Singapore with further valuable points in the championship having done as we intended and recovered well from qualifying."