The omens had not been good. Everyone was expecting another indifferent performance from a Jenson Button who seemed to be suffering a bad case of stage fright as he closed on a world championship that had looked to be in the palm of his hands months ago.

Maybe it was what he had for breakfast here yesterday. Perhaps it was the dream he had about winning the title two nights before the race.

Whatever it was, Button came out fighting in the Brazilian Grand Prix and produced a racing performance of the very highest order to sweep all the doubts away and cruise past the finishing post to win the greatest championship of them all.

Button’s smooth yet committed and gutsy driving at Interlagos from fourteenth on the grid to finish fifth was the stuff of comic-book heroes as he scythed past one rival after another. All in all, he made four top-drawer passing manoeuvres, most involving late breaking into Turn 1 but one of which, early in the piece against Romain Grosjean, in the Renault, had his supporters’ hearts in their mouths as he went inside and outside through Turns 4 and 5.

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The Englishman, who now becomes the ninth British world champion in Formula One, has developed a reputation for being non-confrontational on the track, but that view looked absurd on an afternoon when Button seemed to have decided that enough was enough as far as this championship battle was concerned; he was going to go out and take it by the scruff of the neck and finish it, whether there was another race to come in Abu Dhabi or not.

It is a compliment of the highest order that Button’s drive reminded many in the paddock of the thrilling last outing here by Michael Schumacher when bringing his celebrated career to an end in 2006. That was a performance that stole the show on the day that Fernando Alonso won his second successive world title for Renault. But there was less at stake for Schumacher that day, who was enjoying every minute of his last run-out in a Ferrari and had only a remote chance of stopping Alonso from clinching the championship.

Button produced the same fireworks, the same precision and commitment, in the knowledge that even the slightest error could see him crash out of the race and have to go to the Gulf in two weeks’ time with the equivalent of a Formula One gun at his head. He would also, no doubt, have faced inevitable criticism for being too aggressive when in sight of his greatest prize. Button went for it all the same and his joy at the end of the race was all the more complete as a result.

The grand prix started with Rubens Barrichello, Button’s Brawn GP team-mate and championship rival, leading from pole into an explosive first lap that saw Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren Mercedes tipped into a spin by the outsider for the title, Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull.

There was then a big smash involving Adrian Sutil in the Force India and Jarno Trulli in the Toyota on the run to Turn 6. The Italian tried to go outside Sutil, but was pushed onto the grass in a clash which resulted in Sutil’s car spearing off the track to the right and Trulli hammering into the wall on the left. The energy released in the contact produced further fireworks as Sutil bounced back across the racing line, collecting Alonso’s Renault on the way. Afterwards Trulli was furious with the young German and remonstrated with him, pushing and jostling him in an outburst that later earned him a $10,000 fine.

The drama on the opening lap served only to benefit Button, who quietly made his way up through the field from fourteenth and by the time the consequent safety-car interruption had ended on lap five, the Englishman was running in ninth place. It was at this point that he got his head down and began his charge up the field. First he took Grosjean for eighth, then got inside Kazuki Nakajima at Turn 1 for seventh.

At that stage the Brawn driver with the orange camera above his helmet was stuck behind the Kamui Koboyashi, the Toyota driver on his debut, who was later described as driving “crazily” and moving around unpredictably under braking. Button knew he had to get past him and at one point made a lunge into Turn 1 only to see the Japanese driver loop back past. But eventually he made the same move stick on lap 25 and the championship was within his grasp.

The race saw plenty of drama, including a massive shunt for Nakajima, who tried it on with Koboyashi only to lose his front wing and then go airborne into the wall at Turn 4 and a dangerous incident in the pitlane when Kovalainen drove out of his box with the fuel hose still attached. This has happened before, notably to Ferrari at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix. The difference this time was that petrol spewed out of the end and caused a fireball under Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari as the Iceman’s brakes ignited the vapour. Fortunately the Finn was not injured.

While Button drove to glory in fifth place, Barrichello endured another disappointing afternoon at his home track, where he has been dogged by bad luck. In his first stint he could not get far enough ahead of Mark Webber, the eventual race winner, in the Red Bull to stay ahead after his first stop and then, in the closing stages he had to pit after his car developed a puncture in its front left tyre. Thus Barrichello’s last chance at a world championship ground to a halt in the closing days of his seventeenth season in Formula One.

The other title contender going into the race, Vettel, who started sixteenth after a woeful performance in the rain in qualifying, produced one his best drives to fourth but he needed a win and other results to go his way to remain in contention in Abu Dhabi. He will have dreamt of going to the Gulf and stealing the championship from Button but, in the event, the inaugural race at the Yas Marina circuit looks like being one big celebration for Britain’s latest Formula One king.

Results and final positions

Result 1, M Webber 1hr 32min 23.081sec (Aus, Red Bull Renault) 2, R Kubica at 7.626sec (Pol, BMW Sauber) 3, L Hamilton 18.944 (GB, McLaren Mercedes) 4, S Vettel 19.652 (Ger, Red Bull Renault) 5, J Button 29.005 (GB, Brawn GP Mercedes) Leading positions Drivers 1, Button89pts 2, Vettel74 3, R Barrichello72 (Br, Brawn GP Mercedes) 4, Webber61.5 5, Hamilton49 Constructors 1, Brawn GP Mercedes 161 2, Red Bull Renault 135.5 3, McLaren Mercedes 71 4, Ferrari 70 5, Toyota 54.5.