Brawn impressed by Button's smooth skills

By Alan Baldwin

SEPANG, Malaysia (Reuters) - Jenson Button is growing in stature while Brawn GP are starting to believe in their potential, team owner Ross Brawn said on Saturday after the Briton grabbed his second pole position in a row.

Asked how impressed he was by Button's performance at the Malaysian Grand Prix, the man who guided Michael Schumacher to a record seven world titles did not mince his words: "Very," replied Brawn.

"Last year...I saw some good races and I saw some races that were not great," he added. "But you know him, you can see he's revelling in it. And he's driving very, very well.

"He's such a smooth driver, it's incredible," said the former Ferrari technical director.

"To some degree (he has surprised me)," continued Brawn.

"Now that he's got a car to work with, he's working very diligently with the engineers and he's just been kind of revitalised.

"The car's good, and that's hopefully going to get better over the next few months, and I think he's going to naturally improve because he's hugely talented."

Button won the season-opening race in Australia last weekend in an astonishing Brawn one-two that came as payback after two years of suffering with Brawn's now-departed predecessors Honda.