Sebastian Vettel is adamant he can still win this year's Formula One world title despite throwing away yet more points.
For the third time this season Vettel failed to score a point as he trundled home a lowly 15th at the end of a Belgian Grand Prix that turned into a disaster for the German.
Running third behind McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, the 23-year-old attacked the latter on lap 17, only to lose control of his car under braking into the bus stop chicane.
As he wrestled with his Red Bull, Vettel skewed one way then the other before spearing into the sidepod on the left-hand side of Button's car, bursting the radiator and forcing him into retirement.
It was an error scathingly criticised by McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh as "not what you would expect to see in Formula One, more reminiscent of junior formulae."
After serving a drive-through penalty, Vettel's woes were later compounded when he suffered a puncture after running over the front wing of Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi.
The tale of woe means Vettel is now 31 points behind Hamilton and 28 adrift of Webber, yet far from being downbeat, he said: "I'm holding my head up."
Assessing the title situation, Vettel added: "Let's wait and see. There are still six races to come and we have all seen how quickly things can change.
"I know I should have been on the podium at least. But everything is still possible. I can still make it happen.
"We'll have to see what we can do at the next races."
Explaining the incident with Button, Vettel added: "What happened, happened and we can't change it now.
"Obviously I'm not proud of it. I lost the car going over a bump as I was braking and unfortunately hit Jenson. I'm sorry for him."
Button, who has dropped to 35 points behind team-mate Hamilton, was naturally left cursing Vettel.
"I don't know what happened with Sebastian. I just felt a big bang in the sidepod, knocking out the radiator, and I completely lost drive," said Button.
"It was a very strange incident. I don't know what he was doing.
"He ended up in the side of my car and that was it, game over. It's a massive blow for the championship that hurts quite a bit.
"I'm now 35 points behind the lead, which is a long way and it puts me on the back foot. I'm pretty down."
Like Button, Whitmarsh was also left wondering about the rationale of Vettel's thinking in looking for a way past Button.
Whitmarsh added: "I realise what happened wasn't intentional, but it was a bit of a strange mistake.
"If he was going for the inside he had about three inches to sneak down there, so God knows what he thought he was doing, but he lost it.
"I'd rather he do that sort of thing with his team-mate rather than with my drivers."