Brawn upbeat about race chances

Ross Brawn believes Jenson Button is in very good shape for tomorrow's Malaysian Grand Prix following his second consecutive pole position

Button held off Toyota rival Jarno Trulli to clinch his second pole in a row following his dominance at the Australian Grand Prix.

Brawn said his team had been cautious about its prospects because they weren't sure about the pace of the competition.

But the Briton reckons now that the picture is clearer, Button is in good form for tomorrow.

"We have been running fuel for the last couple of days so we didn't know where the opposition were," Brawn told the BBC. "Really Q2 was the first time we could make a judgement.

"We've managed to save some tyres with Jenson, running him on the hard tyre for most of qualifying to the end, so he's in good shape for the race now. But it is tough, particularly Jarno looked very quick.

"Jenson has looked very strong. Once we got the reference time in Q1, he looked very strong. We don't want to take any chances but the fact that we have now got two new sets of tyres for the race is great."

He also admitted he was relieved none of the cars near Button will be using KERS tomorrow.

"There is no one around us with KERS at the start which is a help, because we were dreading that. They certainly have a gain here," he added.

"I think Jarno looks in reasonable shape if you look at his long runs and the Red Bulls look strong, so I think it will be a great race tomorrow."