FORMULA ONE CHINESE GP:IF JENSON Button ever finds himself, post-Formula One driving career, pondering an occupation he might consider meteorology.

After judging the weather to perfection at a soggy Australian Grand Prix last month, the defending world champion made a similarly savvy call at yesterday’s Chinese Grand Prix, where intermittent showers of varying intensity and the right choice of tyre when those showers arrived proved the deciding factor in handing the British driver his second win of the season.

Button started the race from fifth place, lodged behind Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and the third-placed Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, with the front row once again annexed by the lightning-quick Red Bulls of Mark Webber and pole-winner Sebastian Vettel.

The McLaren driver remained anonymous in a messy start in which Alonso jumped the lights to power ahead of the Red Bulls while at the back of the field Vitantonio Liuzzi outbraked himself and launched his Force India through the packed midfield, taking out Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi and the Toro Rosso of Sébastien Buemi. With damaged cars on track and debris scattered across the asphalt, the safety car made its first appearance.

That was the cue, with light rain falling, for the twin Red Bulls and Alonso to head to the pit for intermediate tyres, in anticipation of the conditions worsening.

Button though opted to remain on his slick tyres, as did Rosberg.

The switch to intermediates initially looked the right call as Alonso quickly made ground, but within a lap it was those on slicks who were setting the pace, leader Rosberg and the chasing Button pulling away from the pack.

It left the previous leaders, Alonso and the Red Bulls, chasing their tails and within a few lap all were back into pitlane for slicks, with Rosberg now leading from Button and the Renaults of Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov.

The weather wasn’t done playing tricks and after a period of calm rain began to fall again, this time enough to allow Button to close on Rosberg after the German went off tracks briefly as the grip gave way.

Button charged past into the lead and once the Briton had secured a solid lead he made his first visit to the pitlane, this time taking on the intermediates tyres.

Despite the field bunching again when the second safety car was called in after Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari clipped the back of Bruno Senna’s HRT Button held on for a second victory of the year, even managing to pull away from hard-charging team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages as the pair stage a mini-battle of who could best preserve his tyres as the track dried and the intermediates were ground down.

“It is not luck we came out on top today,” said Button afterwards. “We chose correctly in the conditions. Staying on the drys was the right thing. We just had to be a little bit careful as every time you arrived at a corner it was a different condition to the previous lap, either better or worse, so it was pretty tricky, but it was definitely the right call. When the team called me in for ‘inters’ that was the right call as well because the tyres had started graining and it was too wet for the slicks.”

Hamilton followed him home to secure McLaren’s first one-two since the Italian Grand Prix of 2007, though the young British driver again had a dramatic race, making the wrong call on tyres in the first safety car period, then indulging in a pitlane-long tussle with Vettel when the pair came in for intermediates early on and finally clambering to second via a series of often inspired, but occasionally bruising overtaking manoeuvres.

The biggest losers were Red Bull Racing, the team again showing off its ability to flatter and deceive by blasting to the front row on Saturday and then slumping in the race. “We got blown away,” said Mark Webber who dropped from second to an eventual eighth, with team-mate Vettel sixth. “We weren’t quick enough, simple as that.”

Constantly improving is Nico Rosberg, the German taking his second podium in a row. He has now outqualified and outraced team-mate Michael Schumacher, who could only manage 10th yesterday, at every event this season.

“Today was one of those races you do not want to remember,” Schumacher said. “It was not good for me and not good from me.”

Button is now in control of the title race with 60 points, 10 clear of Rosberg, who heads Alonso by one point.