World championship leader Jenson Button has played down Brawn GP's chances of winning in Malaysia this weekend - saying Ferrari is the team to beat at Sepang.
Alhough his Brawn GP outfit was dominant in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, and rivals have said he and Rubens Barrichello are untouchable, Button reckons the competitive picture has already changed at the second race of the season.
With Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa leading the way in Friday practice, Button believes his team is no longer favourite – especially as it does not have a KERS system "I think we have got a lot more competition this weekend," said Button, who won from pole position in Melbourne.
"We are not there with the balance yet. I have a lot of areas to work on, where I am not happy. That is a good thing because I don't think our pace is as good as we would have hoped.
"I think if you look at the cars and their long runs, you can see the Ferrari is very quick and you can see the Red Bull is quick. Especially, the Ferraris are a lot quicker than I expected, so they are very competitive. I am not sure if we can do the same times as them, so we have to wait and see."
He added: "At the moment we are not in a position that I am happy with, with the car. I think Rubens is the same. There are areas where we really need to improve to be at the front, and you might think it sounds crazy or that I am trying to talk us down – but I think Ferrari is the team to beat if you look at the times at the moment. And that is not just over one lap; it is over the long runs.
"So if they are running a reasonably normal fuel load, which I think they probably are, they are very quick. They are going to be the cars that we have to beat."
Button is especially wary of Ferrari because it is one of the few teams running KERS – which will provide an advantage on Sepang's long straights and at the start.
"You cannot compete with KERS cars on the straights here," said Button. "I was behind [Fernando] Alonso here in practice and he was annihilating me on the straights. So they are gaining a lot on the straights, probably more than they have let on in previous tests and what have you. But that is an area where they are going to be strong.
"So even if I do qualify in front of them, it is going to be difficult to keep them behind. It is tough when you are racing against KERS cars, and when KERS cars are your main competitors, it is going to be very difficult."
Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello gave Brawn GP a stunning debut one-two in the dramatic season-opening Australian Grand Prix, which finished behind the safety car after Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica tangled while fighting for second. Button controlled the race from the outset, while Barrichello had to recover from a poor start and two collisions - only gaining second thanks to the late crash. Tail-end starters Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Timo Glock (Toyota) also benefited from the incident to emerge in surprise third, fourth and fifth places. Trulli's podium is in dispute, however, with McLaren suggesting that the Italian re-passed Hamilton under safety car conditions after sliding off the road during the caution. While Button surged off the line into a clear lead at the start, his team-mate Barrichello got away extremely slowly after triggering the anti-stall system, and was in the lower reaches of the top ten by the first corner. In his eagerness to recover the lost ground, Barrichello managed to tangle with both Mark Webber's Red Bull and Nick Heidfeld's BMW, leaving the latter with a puncture and causing Webber to spin into Kovalainen - who Barrichello felt had initially triggered the incident by tapping him from behind. While Webber sustained a broken wing, Kovalainen was eliminated and Fernando Alonso had to drive across the grass in avoidance, Barrichello escaped with a slightly mangled wing and was able to continue in seventh. He would later remove another chunk of his wing on Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari while trying to fight back. Button quickly established a four-second lead, but Red Bull driver Vettel was able to stabilise the gap at that level. They soon enjoyed a huge margin over the rest of the field, for the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Raikkonen had used their KERS boost to charge into third and fifth at the start, split by Kubica's BMW. These three drivers had all opted to run short first stints on the soft tyres, and as the rubber faded, they began losing up to 5s per lap to the top two. By the time they had all pitted on lap 12, new third-place man Rosberg was half a minute adrift of Button and Vettel. The Williams would lose further ground with a left front wheel problem at its first pitstop. Button and Vettel lost their advantage when the safety car was called on lap 19 - Williams's Kazuki Nakajima having crashed on the exit of Turn 4 while running a strong fourth on a long first stint strategy. The safety car initially picked up Vettel rather than Button, leading to an extended delay while the pack was ordered. As the pitstops unfolded, Massa had moved back up to third, but he did not get close enough to Button and Vettel at the restart to use his KERS, and soon fell back to the midfield because his short first stint on softs forced him to make a very early final pitstop before the pack had strung out again following the safety car. Button built his lead over Vettel back up to 5s in the next stint, only to lose it all with a slow final stop - rejoining just 1.5s ahead of the Red Bull, and with Kubica only 5s behind in third and unlike the leaders now on the medium compound tyres. Kubica rapidly closed in on the leaders and attacked Vettel on the outside into Turn 3 with three laps to go. Neither was willing to give way, and they became entangled in the corner before both crashing on the next straight as their battered suspension gave way. That gave Button and Barrichello a Brawn one-two after all - a staggering result for a team only rescued a month ago. Trulli, Hamilton and Glock therefore appeared in the top five, ahead of Alonso and Rosberg, the latter losing more time when Nelson Piquet spun across his bows at the mid-race restart, and then when his soft tyres faded at the end. Sebastien Buemi drove a highly impressive race on his debut to complete the scorers for Toro Rosso. Ferrari's race fell apart in the closing stages. Massa slowed and retired, while Raikkonen spun into the wall and broke his front wing, before also parking in the garage with three laps to go.
PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS
The Australian Grand Prix Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia; 58 laps; 307.574km; Weather: Sunny.
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Button Brawn GP (B) 1h34:15.784 2. Barrichello Brawn GP (B) + 0.807 3. Trulli Toyota (B) + 1.604 4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 2.914 5. Glock Toyota (B) + 4.435 6. Alonso Renault (B) + 4.879 7. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 5.722 8. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 6.004 9. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 6.298 10. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) + 6.335 11. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 7.085 12. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) + 7.374 13. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1 lap 14. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) + 2 laps 15. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 3 laps 16. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) + 3 laps
Fastest lap: Rosberg, 1:27.706
Not classified/retirements:
Driver Team On lap Massa Ferrari (B) 46 Piquet Renault (B) 25 Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 18 Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1
World Championship standings, round 1:
Drivers: Constructors: 1. Button 10 1. Brawn GP 18 2. Barrichello 8 2. Toyota 10 3. Trulli 6 3. McLaren-Mercedes 5 4. Hamilton 5 4. Renault 3 5. Glock 4 5. Williams-Toyota 2 6. Alonso 3 6. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 7. Rosberg 2 8. Buemi 1
