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Vettel the one to watch in Bahrain, says Button |
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Saturday, 25 April 2009 |
 MANAMA, April 25 (Reuters) - Sebastian Vettel is favourite to notch his second win in a row in Bahrain on Sunday, according to Brawn GP's Formula One championship leader Jenson Button. "I think Sebastian is going to be the one who is going to be competitive because their (Red Bull's) pace in Q2 (the second session of qualifying) was very good," the Briton told reporters.
Vettel, who won in the wet in China last weekend, qualified third on Saturday and alongside Button on the second row of the grid.
The 21-year-old German will be able to run a longer first stint in the race since he has 6.5kg more fuel on board than Button and 10.5kg more than Toyota's Italian Jarno Trulli on pole position.
Timo Glock's second placed Toyota will start 16kg lighter than the Red Bull.
Although Toyota swept the front row, Vettel set the fastest time of the afternoon in the second part of qualifying when all cars were on equal fuel loads.
Button, who won the first two races of the season, said Brawn should be in good shape in normal conditions.
With world champion Lewis Hamilton just behind in fifth place, his major worry was the McLaren driver could use the extra boost provided by the KERS energy recovery system to get past at the start and then hold him up.
TYRE WEAR
"I don't think his race pace will be as quick as the cars in front of him," said Button, who also expected tyre wear to influence the outcome.
"It's a long race and it's bloody hot. If you're not looking after your tyres you are going to struggle.
"We've definitely got a consistent pace with a long run whereas others, after four or five laps, their times are going sky high.
"We have that advantage," added Button, who has a six-point lead over Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello after three races and is 11 points clear of third-placed Vettel.
Barrichello, who starts sixth after a disappointing performance, said Brawn could still hope to get both drivers on the podium.
"We didn't have as competitive a car as we thought yesterday," he said.
"Formula One is moving quite fast and I think Toyota and Red Bull could well be ahead of us in qualifying now. We need to work on that.
"Yesterday we were better than everyone (on race pace) so it remains to be seen ... I am pretty sure we can put both cars on the podium but having said that Toyota and Red Bull are the favourites right now."
Source: Reuters
Source(image): AFP
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