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Fernando Alonso hopes Formula 1 rival - and potential 2015 McLaren team-mate - Jenson Button remains on the grid next season.

Button is out of contract with the McLaren F1 team at the end of this season, and the Woking squad has yet to decide whether he or current team-mate Kevin Magnussen should partner Alonso when the Spaniard returns for 2015.

Sources close to McLaren suggest Alonso would prefer Button to remain at McLaren, because he believes the experienced Briton would be of greater benefit in pushing the team towards the front of the grid as it enters a new engine partnership with Honda.

Alonso said after last weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix that he thinks Button is good for F1.

"For Button, hopefully he stays," Alonso said.

"He's a very talented driver, he has nothing to say [to justify his place] as a world champion, but also he is a great character and a great person.

"I think people like him are good for our sport."

But Alonso, who has yet to officially confirm he will rejoin McLaren next year, insisted he would not have any say in Button's future.

"We'll see if we have him on the grid and that's a question for McLaren, not for me," he said.