Budapest: Formula One leader Jenson Button fears he could be like an early pacesetter in the Tour de France who can see his advantage vanishing as the mountains approach.
The Briton finished seventh in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, his lowest placing this season and the third disappointing result in a row for the Brawn team that dominated the opening races.
Red Bull's Mark Webber finished third at the Hungaroring, and set the fastest lap, to go second overall 18.5 points behind Button.
"I've lost 15 points to Webber over the last three races and that's massive," said Button, who won six of the first seven races and had hoped for a return to form at the track where he took his first victory in 2006.
"It's five points a race. He'll be in front of me in four races time. And there's seven left so it's for sure not comfortable but I can't do anything about it at the moment," added the Briton.
Australian Webber, a cycling hard nut who has ridden some of the more gruelling Tour de France stages for fun in the past, is the rival cast in the role of Alberto Contador, Spain's relentless Tour winner.
"We are leading the championship but its inevitable they are going to overtake us if we keep going like we are," said Button.
"It's like wearing the yellow jersey knowing that when you get to the mountains you are going to be useless."
Webber refused to give his friend any comfort after his fourth podium in a row.
"We are in the hunt and we can take our car to a lot of venues and be competitive," he said.
Button had arrived in Hungary after two cold races in Britain and Germany, with a new aerodynamic package and hoping the hotter temperatures would allow him to work the tyres better.
Friday practice was reassuring but he lost out in final qualifying when Brawn kept him in the pits to change a part that had failed on team mate Rubens Barrichello's car and that injured Ferrari's Felipe Massa who was hit on the head.
Sunday's race, won by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in a resurgence for the former frontrunners and second placed Ferrari, then saw a marked dip in the track temperatures.
"We keep complaining and saying its the weather's fault but it basically is," said Button.
"We've got a car that looks after its tyres when it's in the right temperature range but as soon as it drops out of that we've got a problem."
"We can't blame the weather in a way," added Button.
"It's our fault for building the car the way it is and we've got to work out what we can do to make it work in conditions that don't suit our car so much."
"Many of the teams at the front have improved their cars but, forgetting them, our car does not feel the same as it did three races ago. So there are lots of areas we need to look at."
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, July 27, 2009, 18:06