McLaren to allow Hamilton and Button to keep on track duel

London - McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale has told Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton to keep "attacking" during the latter part of the Formula One season even if it means racing each other.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, Neale insisted that McLaren’s only option for overhauling Red Bull’s runaway championship leader Sebastian Vettel is to charge ahead for wins.

"We certainly haven’t given our drivers any change of brief. We still intend to give both an equal opportunity in terms of all of the upgrades that we bring to the circuits and they should both attack at all opportunities," the Sun quoted Neale, as saying.

"We are not in a position where we want to play any kind of safe game. The most important thing is to continue to win races and the only way we can do that when the competition is so tight is to keep our drivers focused on taking every opportunity," he added.

Defending champion Vettel still stands 88 points ahead of third-placed Hamilton, with Button a further 12 points adrift of his team-mate.