Jenson Button is determined to put himself back into the mix for the Formula One world championship at next weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

Fourth-placed Button slipped further off the pace set by McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton after crashing out of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa last Sunday.

His early collision with title rival Sebastian Vettel is still a bone of contention for Button, but the reigning world champion is determined to bounce back at Monza with just six races to go in the season.

"Obviously, my non-finish in Spa wasn't ideal for my Championship aspirations, so I head to Monza next weekend determined to put myself back in the hunt for the title," said Button, who is now 35 points adrift of championship leader Hamilton.

"Our pace over the whole weekend in Belgium was extremely encouraging – we're developing the car at a very rapid rate and we're learning more about it all the time – so I'm optimistic that we'll be able to maintain that form in Italy next weekend.

"We still have some work to do to make sure the package we bring to Italy is perfectly suited to the track, but I'm confident that our engineers have made some good steps forward with their understanding of our car, so we should be in good shape.

"Given the competitiveness at the front of the field, this could be an intense, thrilling grand prix."

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