Jenson Button has insisted that his relationship with Lewis Hamilton is perfectly sound but believes his team-mate is making a mistake by leaving McLaren for Mercedes.

Button, who was knocked out of the race at turn three on the first lap by Kamui Kobayashi, was attempting to clear the air after considerable speculation in the paddock that Hamilton was becoming increasingly detached from the McLaren set up ahead of his move at the end of the season.

Hamilton scored only one point in the race and McLaren have now fallen well 83 points behind Red Bull, who took a one-two win at Yeongam, in the constructors' championship and six points behind Ferrari, whose Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa finished third and fourth. McLaren, then, need the maximum from both drivers in the final four races of the season and although both have admitted the drivers title is now beyond them, Button said that catching Red Bull was "difficult, but still not impossible."

The relationship of Hamilton with the team, then, has understandably been under the spotlight but Button was adamant it was business as usual at McLaren.

"The team will give Lewis everything they can because Lewis can give the team chances of winning races, as I can," he said "The team care about the drivers, but also they care about winning. There will not be any change in this team at all in the way we go racing with two drivers."

"It is amazing how opinionated people are with this team and none of it is true. The atmosphere in the team is fantastic. As far as I can see with Lewis, he is focused and wants to win races. Nothing has changed, it is just the view of a few people with a wide audience and they need to get their facts straight."

He did, however, reveal that, in leaving McLaren, he thought Hamilton had made the wrong decision. "He has chosen to go his own way at the end of the year. It is his decision, although I personally don't think it is the right decision," he said, adding that the two drivers still maintained a solid working relationship. "We are not close friends. We work together and have a good working relationship," he said. "If we think there is something wrong with the car we will work on it."