Both Vettel and Button had overtaken Venezuelan Williams driver Pastor Maldonado right after the lights went out and after Button's team mate Lewis Hamilton retired from the lead after suffering a gearbox issue, Vettel took over to win the Singapore Grand Prix with Button in second, just like last year.
Current World Champion Sebastian Vettel lies second in the Drivers Championship, 29 points behind the Spanish Ferrari driver, while Hamilton plummeted from second to fourth and trails Alonso by 52 points.
Button is 75 points off the lead with a maximum 150 left on offer.
“It's hard for anyone to catch Alonso, except Sebastian at the moment,” Button is quoted as saying by BBC Sport. “It's between those two but there's still a lot of people with a long shot. That's what we're all going to go for."
“It just shows that one bad race makes a massive difference. Fernando had his at Spa, Lewis had his at Spa and here, Seb had his at the last race. I had mine in the last race. When no one has the consistency, you can't close a big gap on someone. But Sebastian is now only 29 points behind. That's a gap that's shrinking,” Button added.
