Speaking in the wake of the incident which ended Jenson Button's Belgian Grand Prix - and possibly his hopes of the 2010 title - McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh was highly critical of Sebastian Vettel.

The incident came just 15 laps into the race as the rain started to fall. Launching an attack on Button, Vettel lost control of his car and T-boned the Englishman's McLaren. While the German was able to get back to the pits, Button's race was over, the world champion managing just a few more yards in his damaged car.

Though he was subsequently handed a drive-through penalty which effectively ended his hopes of a points finish, there were further incidents involving Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

Speaking to the BBC after the race, while delighted with Lewis Hamilton's uber cool performance, Whitmarsh was highly critical of Vettel, claiming that the German had cost the Woking team a 1-2.

"Without Sebastian's efforts we would be leading the constructors' championship," he said. "We've seen how good Jenson is in wet conditions and he was going to be competitive.

"To me, that has impacted on Jenson's championship and our team," he continued. "A drive-through penalty seemed pretty light to me. The stewards will be busy reviewing a lot of things from this race so we shall see what happens."

While the stewards - who included 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell - were to penalise Jaime Alguersuari for missing the final corner and thereby gaining an advantage - there were no further sanctions for Vettel.

"It was a strange incident and so sad because I was fighting for second position," said Button after the race. "I was on the inside and it was clear I wasn't going to let him pass on the inside, but the outside was very clear for him. I'm guessing he thought I was going to pull from the left and he went on the inside. But he got a little rattled and didn't know which way to go.

"I thought I was doing a good job of keeping my position and fairly," he added. "It's a massive blow, I'm really disappointed."