'I'm not relieved, I feel ecstatic. Maybe there's something in dreams'

Jenson Button has a new mantra: "I'm the world champion!" If he said it once last night in Interlagos, he said it a hundred times. And he plans to say it another hundred. Perhaps two.

"There's been no season like it in F1, it's been exceptional," he began as he tried to marshal other thoughts, but instead he just let that one keep intruding. "It's great to be sat here as the world champion, and personally I feel that I deserve it. I was the best over 16 races and that's what world champions are. I am a world champion! And I'm gonna keep saying it all night, especially as I just heard my flight home is cancelled."

Everything that the moment meant to Button was etched there in his face, still boyish as he approached his 30th birthday, still, as it has been all season, smiling amiably. But now he could let his true feelings show, drop the pretence that everything was cool as privately he began to fear his title was slipping away after a string of tough races that, he finally admitted, he hadn't enjoyed at all.

He said he had dreamt that qualifying would go badly, but that he would win the title. "Maybe, " he mused, "there is something in dreams..."

On 18 October 2009, as he became the 10th British world champion, and gave the nation its first back-to-back champions, his greatest dream came true. And he was loving it.

"I feel as if I'm still racing," he grinned. "I've been flat out since I got out of the car. People ask me do I feel relieved, but you don't win the world championship and feel relief. I feel ecstatic. All the good and bad memories go through your mind, from all the years. Especially this year. We had such a great start, then the last few races have been pretty stressful for me. It's been difficult. Mentally, it hurts not to get the best out of the car. I read too many papers and magazines, and negative comments are tough when you feel you are at the top of your game, but there's been a lot of good stuff too and so there should be, because the team have been staggering this year."

It was not just the Briton going through the emotional ringer but his supporting cast too. His father, John, summed up their feelings: "I'm a bit drained," he said with an element of understatement. "The last seven or eight laps, we were all crying like little girls. I'm all washed out at the moment, I've got to accept where he is now, up there with all those great names. I haven't got my head round it."

After all the recent criticism that Button had become a shadow of the man who won six of the first seven races at the start of the season, the real Jenson Button was back at the wheel yesterday, and he was very pleased with his own performance.

"That was the best race I have driven in my life," he suggested. "All the emotions that were involved, and me doing what I had to do to make it happen. Some people were very difficult to pass, but I did what I had to do."

And as he relaxed more, he finally felt able to let the tensions of the past few months go. "I can enjoy this moment, and I can admit that the people around me have been so important. I've put on a brave face like I don't care, because it would show weakness to say that it's been hurtful and stressful, but I can say it now. It felt like I won the race yesterday."

He was happy to focus on the moment, but allowed that he wants the same chance to drive a winning car again in 2010. "I want a car and team that can challenge for victories. Brawn can do that, and we aren't one-hit wonders."

Again the smile broke through, so carefree now in the hour of triumph. And almost as if the thought had just occurred to him, he said again: "I'm the world champion! And I'm not going to stop saying that."