Jenson Button heads into this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix inspired by last year's race, in which he became world champion.
World champion inspired by 2009 Interlagos charge
Jenson Button knows his world championship defence now hangs by a thread but is also aware that the Brazilian Grand Prix is a race in which the unlikely can happen.
Button found himself under intense pressure just over 12 months ago when, with a commanding lead having been whittled away during the second half of the season, he struggled once more during qualifying at Interlagos.
Driving for Brawn GP, Button could only qualify 14th in wet conditions. To make matters worse, team-mate and chief rival Rubens Barrichello then claimed pole position in front of his home crowd.
When he needed it most, though, Button pulled arguably the race of his life out of the bag and came through field to finish fifth, the title being sealed as Barrichello faded to eighth place.
Heading into this weekend's race, Button finds himself playing the role of pursuer - albeit of one who must overhaul a massive 42-point deficit to leader Fernando Alonso.
In effect, he needs to win and hope that, certainly the Ferrari driver, together with Red Bull's Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel all struggle.
However, having now spent over a decade in F1, Button has learned to expect the unexpected.
The McLaren driver said: "When I was here last year I learnt an important lesson.
"After qualifying 14th, with my team-mate and one of my main rivals on pole, my heart just sank. I felt sick.
Negatives
"It was a difficult time because when you are really fighting for something and you really want it, when things go wrong like that, you start thinking about the negatives.
"So I sat down with the good people who look after me and help me out in a situation, and we just discussed how difficult it was, but also where I was in my life, in my career.
"I went to bed positive, had a good night's sleep, and I woke up on Sunday morning thinking 'today is going to be the day'.
"I knew it was not going to be easy, but I thought 'I'm going to fight for it. I'm not going to let it fall into my lap.'
"When the lights went out I just flew off and fought for every position possible. I was aggressive, but controlled.
"Just when I thought it was almost all over I threw caution to the wind and drove one of the most attacking, best drives of my F1 career.
"That's something I'll be taking with me into this weekend when I know I'll not only need a strong result, but also to rely on others failing to score to keep me in the hunt for the championship.
"Given the points situation I know I face an uphill struggle to hold on to the world title, but I'll be giving it everything I've got this weekend to stay in contention.
"I fought hard to become the 2009 world champion, and I won't give up my title without a fight."
