As he approaches the beginning of the defence of his hard-fought drivers’ world championship crown in Bahrain in a week’s time, Jenson Button has reflected that there are several cars potentially capable of pulling a super-quick lap time out of the bag come qualifying in F1 2010 – but he argues that only a handful will be able to repeat that feat on race day and maintain a flat-out pace of development all the way throughout the campaign.

Pre-season testing in the top flight is famously hard to accurately read, and in 2010 that difficulty has become even more pronounced, with the ban on refuelling necessitating fuel tanks twice the size of before – and therefore by extension, producing even greater discrepancies in lap time between those running on full tanks and those undertaking low-fuel qualifying-style runs. The trick is in working out who has been doing precisely what.

Whilst firm answers will only be forthcoming in Sakhir, conventional wisdom goes that Ferrari, Red Bull Racing, Button’s McLaren-Mercedes team and the British star’s erstwhile employer Mercedes Grand Prix – formerly Brawn GP – will steal an early advantage.

Team-mate and title-winning predecessor Lewis Hamilton has warned that Sauber and Force India could similarly sneak in on the act  off the back of some surprising testing exploits, but Button suggests that whilst the pretenders to F1’s ‘big four’ might be able to do some damage over a single lap, when it comes to tyre-management over a long race distance, they will fade away again into the background.

Either way, the 30-year-old is confident that McLaren – which endured a catastrophic start to 2009, with a car that began proceedings the best part of three seconds shy of the leading pace and took half a season to adequately play catch-up – is in the ballpark and ready to do battle.

“I’m hoping the chances are good,” he told reporters during a special Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes phone-in session, when asked how optimistic he is about being able to make it back-to-back title glories this year. “In testing the car has been running very reliably, which is always important heading into a long season. The last day I drove at the test [in Barcelona] we had a new aero package on the car, which worked well; I didn’t really get a lot of time with it because it was wet in the morning, but I did a race run and some lower-fuel runs in the afternoon and everything was working very well.

“I’m happy with the way the car feels, but I still feel there is room for improvement. At Jerez, I think Lewis and myself both found [the long-run performance drop-off from the tyres] reasonably difficult, and I think it was because it was so cold and that made it difficult to get the tyres working. In Barcelona, on my run on the Saturday it was still quite difficult, because it had rained that morning and spread marbles all over the circuit; the car was quite loose at the rear, but I overtook Rubens [Barrichello] twice, I overtook Nico [Rosberg], I overtook [Vitaly] Petrov, I overtook a lot of people on my long run, so the pace was obviously good.

“Compared to the Ferrari, if you look at the race distance we did we came out on top, but you don’t exactly know what they’re doing. The pace seems good, and Lewis the following day was quick and the consistency seemed to be good when the circuit was in better nick. They tried a few of the ideas that we’d had the previous day, and he seemed reasonably happy with the car.

“Keeping the tyres in good condition is important; it seems that a lot of cars can be quick over one lap, looking at how close the times have been, but getting the tyres to work over a race distance is obviously more difficult. To see the times coming down throughout the stint on Lewis’ run was very positive, because if you’ve got a car that’s working the tyres too hard, they’re going to level out or might even go off.

Jenson Button made it five wins from six grand prix starts in 2009 by cruising to victory on the streets of Monaco at the head of another Brawn GP 1-2.

The Briton was seldom troubled after making a good start from pole position, aided by team-mate Rubens Barrichello getting a blinder from P3 to jump ahead of front row starter Kimi Raikkonen and prevent the Ferrari driver from benefitting from being able to use his KERS to take the lead. Despite the Brawns being more heavily fuelled than the Finn, Button and Barrichello pulled away over the early laps, cementing the British team’s path to victory.

Although Button was unable to hold the lead throughout, with the likes of Raikkonen, team-mate Felipe Massa and Williams’ Nico Rosberg all taking turns at the front during the various pit-stop windows, there was little doubt that victory would come his way unless fate intervened.

Barrichello came under greater pressure as Ferrari’s resurgence allowed both Raikkonen and Massa to become podium threats, but the Brazilian was ultimately able to back Button up in the third Brawn 1-2 of the year.

While nemesis McLaren’s weekend went from bad to worse with Heikki Kovalainen’s exit against the Swimming Pool barriers, Ferrari held on to secure a season’s best third and fourth, while Mark Webber, Rosberg, Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Bourdais claimed the remaining points positions.

Rosberg had earlier made a daring move to pass Massa when the Brazilian was forced to back off and allow Sebastian Vettel through after overtaking the German by cutting the seafront chicane, but was not a threat after dropping away from a high of fourth. Webber thus proved to be Ferrari’s biggest threat but, despite posting some of the fastest laps of the race, the Australian could not sustain his pace consistently and had to settle for fifth.

Alonso’s decision to run long from the start did not pay dividends for Renault, while Bourdais had enough in hand to keep Giancarlo Fisichella at bay and deny Force India some measure of recompense after Adrian Sutil’s 2008 disappointment. The German was never a factor this time around, and brought up the rear of the field, three places behind former F3 team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who only recovered to 13th from his rear of the grid start.

Jenson Button benefited from a typical piece of Ross Brawn strategy to come through from fourth on the grid to win the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Briton, who lost out to countryman Lewis Hamilton at the start, made importantly short work of the world champion in the early stages to mark himself out as the main challenger to the front row-occupying Toyotas. Then, when the lighter Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock stopped before the Brawn, Button was left in prime position to claim a third – and potentially most satisfying – win of Brawn’s maiden season.

Through the middle part of the 57-lap event, the two Toyotas fell further away, leaving Sebastian Vettel – with newer tyres and a heavier initial fuel load – as the only real threat to the championship leader, but Button had enough in hand to come home nearly ten seconds ahead of the field.

Vettel managed to resist a late spot of pressure from Trulli, to claim another podium to add to his win in China, while Hamilton managed to come home ahead of the second Brawn of Rubens Barrichello to collect a much-needed fourth place for the beleaguered McLaren team.

Even more desperate for a result, Kimi Raikkonen gave the visiting Luca di Montezemolo something to cheer with sixth for Ferrari, coming home ahead of the disappointing Glock, while Fernando Alonso held off Nico Rosberg for the final point.

The German’s Williams team-mate, Kazuki Nakajima, posted the sole retirement of the hottest race of the year so far, but that will be of little comfort to the two BMW Saubers, both of which were hobbled by first lap contact that left them aerodynamically disadvantaged and switching to a one-stop strategy that failed to pay dividends.

The FIA International Court of Appeal has ruled that the diffusers used by the Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams teams in the opening two races of the Formula One season is legal.

The double-decker system employed by the teams had led to controversy in both Australia and Malaysia after rival teams claimed it gave the ‘diffuser three’ an unfair advantage on track.

Appeals were lodged by rivals in both Melbourne and at Sepang, which were rejected by race stewards, leading to Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault appealing to the FIA over the matter. BMW Sauber and McLaren were also present at the hearing.

After a hearing of the Court of Appeal yesterday [Tuesday] in which teams had the chance to put forward their evidence, overnight deliberations were followed by a short statement from the governing body confirming that the diffuser system is within the rules.

It means that the top four in the championship standings – Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock – will not face the prospect of losing the points secured so far, while the remaining seven teams on the grid now face the prospect of redesigning their diffusers to match the system employed by Brawn, Toyota and Williams.

Renault, for one, are believed to have a prototype version of the system already, which could be used in China this weekend.

“The FIA International Court of Appeal has decided to deny the appeals submitted against decisions numbered 16 to 24 taken by the Panel of the Stewards on 26 March at the 2009 Grand Prix of Australia and counting towards the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship,” a short FIA statement read.

“Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the Court has concluded that the Stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations.

“Full reasons for this decision will be provided in due course.”