Button - Three from four

Three wins from four races, it could not be going much better for Jenson Button and the Brawn Mercedes team.

"This was a tough race for us," Button began. "You might say I was leading for most of it but this race we had not the pace we had in the first three races. I don’t know where it has gone. I guess these guys have just caught up and maybe passed us. But the first lap of the race I knew was very important because Sebastian (Vettel) was going longer, so I made it work and I came out of the first corner in third. From then on it was a tough race but very enjoyable."

After starting the Bahrain Grand Prix from fourth position, the championship leader battled hard with the fast-starting Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap before retaining the position behind the Toyota duo of Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli.

Talking of his crucial pass on the defending champion for third position at the start of the race, Button explained: "I must say because he was blocking very well but then at the last corner he made a slight mistake, so I pulled alongside him on the straight and I knew as soon as we got to the start-finish line he was going to push his KERS button and he did and he pulled away again, so I had to jump in behind and then did him into turn one.

“The first lap was what made the race really. I’d certainly say it was the finest first lap of my career, for sure."

As the first Glock and then Trulli pitted early courtesy of their light fuel load, Button was able to take advantage of his longer first stint and Toyota’s decision to switch to the harder prime tyre to ensure that he emerged at the head of the field following the first round of pitstops.

From that point, the Brawn racer was able to build a cushion of up to 15 seconds on the field and duly recorded his third win of the season as the chequered flag flew at the end of the 57-lap race.

"A fantastic performance today from Jenson and all credit is due to him for an outstanding opening lap which made today's victory possible," said Team Principal Ross Brawn with reference to Button's pass on Hamilton. "We have had a challenging weekend in dealing with the extreme temperature conditions which was made more difficult by our lack of hot weather testing prior to the season. I am very proud of the way that the team here in Bahrain has worked together to overcome the issues that we faced and how they performed in the race today."

Button’s latest success sees him extend his championship advantage from team-mate Rubens Barrichello to 12 points and 13 ahead of Sakhir runner-up Sebastian Vettel. Brawn Mercedes dominate the constructors’ championship as they lead Red Bull Renault by 22.5 points.

The team may well however facer a stiffer challenge in Barcelona in two weeks time as the big guns wheel out their latest double-diffuser designs. This is something that Button recognises.

"We’ve had four races; they’ve been pretty important to us, especially at the start of the season when people have got reliability issues or making mistakes, we’ve been able to pick up the points which is great,” Button explained. “When we get to Europe we don’t know where anyone is going to be. We know that these two teams alongside me here are going to be competitive but we don’t know how and the same for McLaren. We have an upgrade coming in Barcelona, I just hope it’s enough. We have to wait and see. Nobody knows..."