Jenson's right on the Button

Even more so than his previous two wins in Australia and Malaysia, Jenson Button's victory in yesterday's Bahrain GP underlined his world title credentials.

How so? Button's wins in the opening two races of the season were built from a position of dominance, winning at a canter having started on pole position. At the Sakhir circuit, however, that was emphatically not the case, with Button starting down in fourth. And even though Toyota's lock-out of the front row was largely the result of a three (rather than two) stop strategy which allowed them to run light fuel loads in final qualifying, Sebastian Vettel - the emphatic winner of last weekend's race in Shanghai - had qualified third, ahead of Button, and with enough fuel to run two laps further in his first stint. And behind, fifth on the grid, lurked the McLaren of reigning champion Lewis Hamilton.

In truth, the race was decided in the opening lap-and-a-bit. At the start, both Button and Vettel were swallowed up by the Kers-boosted Hamilton, but the Brawn driver responded with two sumptuous passes, dispatching first Vettel and then Hamilton with moves that were assertive rather than aggressive, clean and yet brave. Those moments alone revealed Button's title potential: he has always been a smooth, consistent driver, but here he showed commitment, control and consummate racecraft in disposing of two rivals who are known to be no shrinking violets themselves when it comes to mixing it up.

From there, the race unfolded perfectly for the championship leader. While Vettel's pace was compromised behind Hamilton's slower McLaren, Button was able to run at his own pace, stabilising the gap to the Toyotas of Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli to a few seconds, waiting patiently for both to pit, then banging in a couple of fast, low-fuel laps before coming in himself. He emerged in front of both Toyotas, and with a comfortable gap that Vettel could not bridge before his own stop.

The rest was routine. In machinery which remained reliable in the blistering heat, and with a lead which he was able to maintain at around ten seconds, Button was never likely to commit errors, and he came home comfortably ahead of Vettel.

Just four races into the season, Button has established a handsome lead of 12 points over teammate Rubens Barrichello, with Vettel a further point behind. In all probability Brawn, with their relatively limited resources, will struggle to maintain a performance advantage throughout the season - it already appears Red Bull and possibly Toyota have equal if not superior pace in certain conditions - but Jenson's showing yesterday demonstrated that, as long as Brawn can keep him there or thereabouts, he is capable of winning even if he does not have the fastest car.

And that is what world champions are made of.