Motor Sport Bahrain Grand Prix: Jenson Button stormed to his second successive podium place with another solid drive in yesterday's inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix, as the challenge of Williams and McLaren again collapsed in the face of Ferrari's supremacy.

As Button joined Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello on the podium - where, in deference to Arab protocol, they shared a mix of rosewater and pomegranate juice - the British driver could reflect that he is now third in the world championship with more to come from both him and his BAR-Honda team.

"We were a little bit fortunate because Juan Pablo \'s car deteriorated, but to get on the podium again is just fantastic," Button said. "This feels as good as the first podium [in Malaysia]. But I'm not going to be happy until I am on that top step. It is going to take us a little while, but I will get there."

For Schumacher it was business as usual, apart from a pre-race flurry when an aide rushed to the team hotel to get the German's lucky charm, an amulet that was a gift from his wife. The world champion then delivered another dominant performance to win his 73rd grand prix from pole position.

A fortnight earlier Montoya's Williams gave Schumacher a good run for his money in Malaysia but here Ferrari resumed the form of the season's opener in Melbourne, with Barrichello dutifully trailing his team leader home.

Williams had begun the day feeling confident, Montoya and Ralf Schumacher having qualified third and fourth in Saturday's blistering 52C track conditions.

Yesterday was very different. Bahrain's first rain in two months fell during the morning but more significantly, the track temperature plunged to 30C and played into the hands of Ferrari's soft-compound Bridgestone tyres.

Although Schumacher locked up a front wheel as he braked hard for the first corner, when the two Ferraris slammed across the timing line 1.5 seconds apart at the end of the opening lap, it was all over bar the shouting.

Montoya led the pursuit from the BAR of Takuma Sato, Ralf Schumacher, Jarno Trulli's Renault and Button. But on lap six Schumacher's Williams collided with Sato and, though both continued, it was not long before Button was up to fifth after his Japanese team-mate ran wide then had to make an earlier than scheduled refuelling stop for repairs to his front wing.

Button leapfrogged Trulli at the second round of refuelling stops before running down the third-placed Montoya, whose car developed gearbox and brake problems with 10 laps to go. The dramaticaly slowing Montoya was then a sitting duck and Button stormed through into third with eight of the 57 laps left.

"It was a great first race here and a brilliant result for the team," Button reflected. "I didn't get a good start and was stuck behind Ralf in turn one, so I dropped back to eighth. In the first stint I was struggling with understeer, so I was losing a lot of time in the high-speed corners. But at the first stop we made a front wing adjustment and after that the car ran really well."

As a dejected Montoya fell away to finish 13th, Ralf Schumacher recovered to take seventh place and the meagre consolation of two championship points for Williams.

"It is clear we are not quick enough to match Ferrari at the moment, but today we were the quickest on Michelin tyres, which is important for us," said Montoya. "I still had a good pace and would have come third if I hadn't had that gearbox problem."

For McLaren, however, this was one of their worst showings in living memory, with Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard beset by technical problems, including bad handling, a fuel leak, a broken brake disc and a resultant punctured tyre in practice.

Raikkonen had his Mercedes engine changed before qualifying and started from the back of the grid, only to retire with engine failure eight laps in. Coulthard was battling for sixth when a loss of pneumatic pressure to the engine's valve gear sidelined him eight laps from the end.

The team appeared shell-shocked, particularly as Raikkonen - widely tipped as a championship contender - has failed to finish in any of three races so far.

"This is not where anyone expects McLaren Mercedes to be," said Coulthard afterwards. "I don't suppose we will be in that position for very long.

"There's a lap time waiting to get out and we're just not harnessing it at the moment. We've got to look to try and get some wins before the end of the year, that's got to be the dream. It might well be a dream."

Guardian Service