Malaysian Grand Prix - preview

Jenson Button has arrived in Kuala Lumpur fully charged after his sensational win in Australia on Sunday, and is looking to do the double under Malaysia's swelteringly hot conditions. In Melbourne, the new Brawn GP team made victory look easy, but the clouds over Kuala Lumpur could hold a few surprises.

Forecasters in Malaysia are predicting heavy rain. Traditionally, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello are quick in these conditions, but the Brawn car has never been tested in the wet.

"The safety cars threw us into the unknown in Australia, and I think we can expect the weather to do the same here," said Button, who led every lap of the last race. "In winter testing we were strong on two different circuits, strong in Melbourne and you would expect us to be strong here. I'd rather it was dry, but it's a good car and hopefully it's good in the wet."

The Sepang circuit should give us a better form guide than Australia, due to the accidents and two safety car periods that shook up the field in Melbourne. Albert Park's dusty roads, with narrow tarmac and straight-forward chicanes, are increasingly at odds with most Hermann Tilke-designed F1 tracks, which provide fast, following, technical corners and have wide straights to aid overtaking.

Sepang is the blueprint for modern circuits. While a driver can stay out of trouble and fluke a lucky podium in Oz - and, indeed, at Monaco - Sepang is a greater test of a car's overall performance.

Therefore we can expect the cream to rise to the top, but few would argue against the Brawns locking down the front row again. The BGP-001 is a beautifully stable and efficient car, and likely to be more capable than its rivals under braking and through off camber curves. The performances of both drivers were hampered last weekend by various events, but they still managed to snatch that historic one-two finish, and insiders claim the team had plenty of performance in the bag.

"It wasn't a perfect weekend in Melbourne," reflected Button, who suffered a five-second delay in the pits, "hopefully we'll have a perfect weekend here. But this is a different circuit and it's difficult to know where the other teams are going to be. Red Bull are quicker than I expected, and you can never discount Ferrari."

Fifty percent of the time, Ferrari have won at this track. With longer and more plentiful straights, expect the cars carrying KERS - Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and Nick Heidfeld's BMW - to close the gap. Heidfeld, in particular, should be quick. But McLaren's rear downforce problems will be even more pronounced here.

Red Bull Racing were right up with the Brawns in Oz, but ultimately failed to score after leaving their bodywork scattered around the track. Williams didn't fulfill their full potential last weekend either, and should perform better in qualifying. However they, like many teams, struggled on the soft tyres. Toyota showed they have astounding speed, with Jarno Trulli fighting his way to third place after starting from the pitlane. The Japanese team should be super quick at Sepang.

If Brawn is uncatchable again this weekend, it will be interesting to see which driver leads. Button and Barrichello are very evenly matched. Down Under, Rubens was quickest in practice and two thirds of qualifying, but Jenson got the job done when it counted. Having been number two to Michael Schumacher for much of his career, Barrichello has no intention of playing wingman this weekend.