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Jenson Button claimed his third victory of the season in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix and increased his lead in the World Drivers’ Championship to 12 points.

Toyota had qualified on the front row of the grid and Jarno Trulli was hoping to score the first win for the Japanese team but a poor start and bad tyre choices saw him finish third behind Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.  Whereas Button and Vettel went for a super soft – super soft – medium strategy, Trulli spent a long middle stint on the slower medium tyres.

After the race, Trulli seemed somewhat deflated and it wasn’t just the 50 degree temperature:

I am a little bit disappointed because I was waiting for the first win for Toyota.

During the second stint we used a very long stint on the hard tyres, so I was trying to fight and it was really hard fighting with a lot of cars. I was not extremely quick.

Lewis Hamilton had a great start and was “delighted” with his fourth place finish – his best of the season.

Kimi Raikkonen, under the stern gaze of Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo, managed a measly three points to save the Scuderia the dishonour of their worst start to an F1 season ever but poor Felipe Massa finished in 14th, a lap down and battling with the Force India of Fisichella.

Although he won by 7 seconds, Button said it was a tough race:

Our car is competitive but it’s still not easy to drive and that’s something that we need to work on because I had a lot of moments during the race where I was wide, locked up rears or fronts.

Jenson is clearly worried that the early advantage Brawn GP has had is starting to be clawed back by teams like McLaren.  The Spanish Grand Prix in two weeks’ time will see most teams bring updated cars including new double-diffusers for Ferrari and BMW but with almost twice as many points as their nearest rival Brawn GP don’t have too much to worry about yet.

2009 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Results