Button: The best man isn't winning

Jenson Button believes the Mercedes driver performing best so far this season is not leading the world championship.

Nico Rosberg extended his championship lead to 29 points with second place in the Belgian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton retired following contact between the two team-mates early in the race. With Hamilton claiming Rosberg admitted to allowing the collision to happen, Button believes Hamilton has been the victim on too many occasions and believes he deserves to win the title based on performances so far.

"It is a shame it is not a cleaner fight," Button said. "I've always said the person who wins the world championship this year is the person who does the best job on the circuit, but that does not quite seem the way it is at the moment."

And Button says he is unsure whether it would be better for the sport to have the controversy between the team-mates or see them fight for the title fairly on the track.

"[Mercedes] will still win the championships, but what has happened definitely adds spice to what is already a pretty spicy relationship. Is it good for the sport? It's negative because we didn't see a good battle between those two.

"But it does get everyone excited about the next grand prix in Italy where none of the fans will be cheering for either of them and would love a coming together. It adds spice, but it's a shame in that true racers want to see them fighting."

Button explained that he feels sorry for Hamilton due to the amount of incidents his former McLaren team-mate has had this season.

"I feel for Lewis, he was leading the race ... It is unbelievable. I've never seen such bad luck, or misjudgement on other people's part, for Lewis to lose so many points over a period of races. It's astonishing, really. I've never seen that before, especially when you have a car that is so dominant and they should be first and second every race.

"It is just a matter of fighting it out and beating your team-mate, although I know that takes its toll. But for me Lewis has come across really well in the media after some disappointing races. He has definitely grown as an individual, which is good to see, and has taken it on the chin. Hopefully it will build his confidence for the rest of the season rather than shatter it."