Lewis Hamilton shakes his head in renewed wonder at the memory.

“It was the most intense experiences of my life”, he says quietly.

“The noise, the atmosphere; I had perhaps two per cent of the fans wanting me to win while the rest were understandably for Felipe [Massa].”

That, in a nutshell, is the scale of the challenge facing Jenson Button on Sunday.

Nearly 12 months after Hamilton's unfeasibly dramatic, final-corner surge past Toyota’s Timo Glock to claim fifth place beneath leaden skies at Interlagos and deny Ferrari's Brazilian driver the title by a solitary point, Button will attempt to become the second Briton in as many years to break Brazilian hearts.

Like Hamilton a year ago, the odds are stacked in his favour.

Button needs only third spot to secure a long overdue title, and he may not have to finish at all depending on what happens to his team mate Rubens Barrichello and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who lie 4 and 16 points behind him respectively.

And unlike Hamilton, he can drive secure in the knowledge that, even should disaster strike at Interlagos notoriously bumpy track, he will at worst carry a four-point lead to the season finale in Abu Dhabi on November 1. It is some safety net.

Yet Hamilton, who will this week be making his first return to Brazil since that epic day last November, knows only too well how quickly leads can be lost. In 2007 he lost a 17-point lead in the last two races of the season, eventually surrendering the title by a point in Brazil when he could only finish seventh.

And the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver speaks from experience when he says that the pressure in Brazil will be firmly on his compatriot, Barrichello and Sebastian Vettel.

“It is so intense, it's fantastic”, he says. “The whole atmosphere at Interlagos is like a carnival. There are so many people there; playing drums and waving flags and cheering on their drivers. But I think every driver deals with these situations in their own way. I'm sure that Jenson, Rubens and Sebastian are just focusing on their own races rather than thinking about each other or the title.”

Fat chance. Button has been leading the championship since Melbourne back in March and had established a semi-invincible lead by the time of his sixth win in Turkey in June. Even the calmest, most level-headed driver would have started to believe the title was his.

So the fact that with each passing race since the Somerset-born driver has seen that lead slowly unravel, to the point where former drivers and pundits have openly questioned his mental fortitude, must be preying on his mind. He would not be human if it didn't.

The cauldron that awaits Button in Brazil will be the ultimate character-test and Hamilton admits that it is one of the proudest achievements of his life that he emerged victorious last year having stumbled in 2007.

“I tell you, it felt like a really small group of British supporters at Interlagos last year although I knew I had all the British support back at home”, he says. “But I didn't resent it. It was normal. You look at Silverstone 2008 and I had all the support and Felipe didn't. I'm sure it was tough for him.

“But I managed to keep it going so if you balance both of them I came out stronger.”

In any case, Hamilton believes the crowd are not as hostile as all that.

“I'm sure there will be a lot of support for Rubens as he is the local boy but I'm pretty certain that the Brazilian fans first and foremost enjoy a great race and a good contest”, he says.

“Brazil is a country with a huge motorsport heritage and I think they love the sport very passionately. From my experience, when I won in Brazil last year, I found that everybody was very happy for me — the whole experience was very positive.”

So positive, in fact, that Hamilton cannot wait to return to the sprawling metropolis. “It's going to be very special”, he concedes, “returning as world champion and knowing I won the world championship there almost exactly a year ago.

“Maybe I'll go a couple of days early or something. I hope my family is with me. I hope they come because it's going to be special for them as well. That point, right there, in Brazil 12 months ago was the culmination of 23 years of hard work so I'm sure I will be very emotional.

“It might be hard for Felipe because I had that feeling last year after what happened in 2007. I haven't seen him since his accident in July but I'm sure we'll sit there and recall this time last year and how intense it was. But I'm sure we'll be looking back at that race 20, 30, 40 years down the line. Hopefully I'll still be looking young and he'll be looking old and grey. “