Button finished ahead of Vettel and third-placed Fernando Alonso at the Hungaroring in Budapest as McLaren made it two wins in seven days before the four-week summer break.
Lewis Hamilton, who had won on the previous weekend in Germany, was a little unlucky to finish fourth after some great wheel-to-wheel action with Button.
But Hamilton's chances were ultimately destroyed when he received a drive-through penalty after spinning and inadvertently forcing Paul di Resta to take evasive action.
Force India driver di Resta eventually finished seventh, recording his best result so far in a very creditable rookie season for the Scot.
It was Button who took the main honours for Britain, though, winning in conditions which were similar to his maiden Grand Prix victory. That was also in Hungary back in 2006.
Button clearly relishes wet conditions as shown by his only other success this season in torrential weather in Canada.
Meanwhile, the Frome Flyer has made it a stated aim to win the rest of the races this year and close the gap on defending title-holder Vettel.
However, even if Button was successful in this highly unlikely feat, the 23-year-old German will still win a second crown if he continues to finish consistently in the points.
For, Vettel now has 234 points, 85 points ahead of his team-mate Mark Webber, who is on 149. Hamilton is three points further behind in third on 146 points with Alonso only just behind him on 145.
Button is fifth on 134 points, exactly 100 behind Vettel, after consecutive failures to finish at Silverstone and in Germany.
Of course, what is far more likely than Button's dream is that all of the top five drivers will win Grand Prix during the course of the rest of the season.
In doing so, none of them will be able to take maximum points and so none of them will be able to mount a serious challenge to Vettel.
But Button, of all the drivers, can hardly complain about Vettel taking the title on account of his early form.
Remember, Button won his 2009 title largely on the strength of winning six of the first seven races.
Nevertheless, it is significant that Red Bull's early dominance has now been clearly eroded. The team has won only one of the last five races which contrasts sharply with Vettel's run of five wins from the first six races.
And so, while Red Bull remain confident of both titles, McLaren and Ferrari can be satisfied with their recent efforts in closing the gap.
Effectively, all of the major teams will go into the break feeling positive in some way. By contrast, though, the four weeks off come at a bad time for the BBC.
The reason being that this recess acts almost as an awkward precursor to the broadcaster's coverage of only every other race from next season after last week's deal with Sky.
Certainly, there will be a lot more four week gaps from F1 on the BBC in 2012 and, unsurprisingly, the fans are still not one bit happy about it.
F1 2011 SEASON RESULTS
PODIUMS
Australian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault
Malaysian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Renault
Chinese GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
Turkish GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
Spanish GP (Pole: Mark Webber)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
Monaco GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
3 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
Canadian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
European GP (Valencia) (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
British GP (Pole: Mark Webber)
1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
German GP (Pole: Mark Webber)
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
Hungarian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
REMAINING CALENDAR
28 August Belgian GP (Spa)
11 September Italian GP (Monza)
25 September Singapore GP (Singapore)
9 October Japanese GP (Suzuka)
16 October Korean GP (Yeongam)
30 October Indian GP (Greater Noida)
13 November Abu Dhabi GP (Yas Island)
27 November Brazilian GP (Sao Paulo)
F1 2011 STANDINGS
World Drivers' Championship
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault 234
2 Mark Webber (Aus 149
3 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes 146
4 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 145
5 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes 134
6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 70
7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes 48
8 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Renault 34
9 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 32
10 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes 32
11 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 27
12 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Mercedes 18
13 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 12
14 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 10
15 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 8
16 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India-Mercedes 8
17 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams-Cosworth 4
Ten drivers have yet to score: (18 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) Sauber, 19 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus-Renault, 20 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) HRT-Cosworth, 21 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams-Cosworth, 22 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin-Cosworth, 23 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus-Renault, 24 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin-Cosworth, 25 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-Cosworth, 26 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) HRT-Cosworth, 27 Karun Chandhok (Ind) Lotus-Renault).
Constructors' Championship
1 Red Bull-Renault (Aut) 383
2 McLaren-Mercedes (Gbr) 280
3 Ferrari (Ita) 215
4 Mercedes (Ger) 80
5 Renault (Gbr) 66
6 Sauber-Ferrari (Swi) 35
7 Force India-Mercedes (Ind) 26
8 Toro Rosso-Ferrari (Ita) 22
9 Williams-Cosworth (Gbr) 4
There are three teams (Lotus-Renault (Mal), Virgin-Cosworth (Rus) and HRT-Cosworth (Spa)) which have yet to score.
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