So the question on everyone's mind as Jenson Button tries to wrap up the driver's championship at tomorrow's Brazilian Grand Prix has to be: Will he lose focus because of his competitor's passionate fans or the scantily-clad samba girls?

That the playboy racer from Brawn GP seems to be easily distracted isn't much in doubt. Button racked up an impressive lead in the first half of the season but has virtually squandered it away in the second half.

The Briton could easily have been Formula One's 2009 champion driver a few races ago but apparently preferred to let his team mate Rubens Barrichello of Brazil, and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel of Germany close the gap.

Going into the last two races on the calendar, Button still has a commanding 14-point lead over his closest competitor, Barrichello. All he has to do is finish third in Brazil to get six points and make it mathematically impossible for the others to overtake him. A race win is worth 10 points.

But it may not be simple as that. Recently, the ageing Barrichello has been driving well and more importantly, the Sao Paulo native has a trump card - he is racing on home ground and his fans can be a bit, er, boisterous.

A year ago, when Britain's Lewis Hamilton was battling Brazil's Felipe Massa for the driver's title, Brazilian fans tried to hex Hamilton and threw a toy black cat at him. His McLaren team was so worried for him that they drove him to the race track in a bulletproof car.

Who knows what lies in store for Button tomorrow. Maybe the Brazilian fans will spit at him. Maybe they will try to puncture his tyres. Or maybe they will just send him a raunchy lad's mag just before the race so that he will be late for it.

As for Vettel, he may be in-form but he is also 16 points adrift of the leader and would not appear to be much of a threat, on paper at least. But he has one thing Button doesn't - his German compatriot Michael Schumacher willing him on.

Like premium petrol with a patented performance additive, the prayers of a seven-time world champion are said to be a bit more powerful.

Also not in Button's favour is expert opinion. Or rather, the opinion of the one guy in Formula One that matters, Bernie Ecclestone. The F1 commercial rights-holder has been reported as saying he hopes tomorrow's race does not decide the world title.

After all, if Button wins in Brazil and does not prolong the suspense until the final race in Abu Dhabi, the grandstands at the Yas Marina Circuit could be as empty as the Arabian desert.

Worse, fewer television viewers from around the world will tune in to watch Abu Dhabi's debut F1 race, one that the capital of the United Arab Emirates has spent at least US$35 billion preparing for. Poor Jenson. The things some people don't want him to do.