Motorsport: Webber picks Brawn as team to beat in Bahrain

Mark Webber expects normal service to resume with the rival Brawn GP team the one to beat at this weekend's Bahrain F1 Grand Prix.

Webber's Red Bull team surprised when claiming an impressive one-two finish, with the Australian finishing behind only teammate Sebastian Vettel, in the Chinese Grand Prix last Sunday.

But some of that success was attributed to their wet weather abilities in a Shanghai downpour. And rain is not expected to be a factor in Bahrain.

Climate charts show average rainfall of no more than 10mm comes on just one day in April.

Even in the unlikely event rain does arrive, it is not going to replicate the monsoon-like conditions of the last two races in Malaysia and China.

Webber expects the Brawn team, who won the first two races of the season through British driver Jenson Button, to come to the fore again.

"There's nothing to suggest a huge amount has changed since Malaysia when, in the dry, Brawn were a second faster than anyone else," he said. "That car is definitely strong and they are the team that is the benchmark for every team to try to close in on."

Webber said the Red Bull team still had some way to go despite their success last week. "The China Grand Prix was clearly very encouraging but we have a lot of work to do yet."

"We want to keep our performance going, no question, but we know there are some fast teams out there.

"Q3 [in Bahrain] is going to be crucial to get right and, if we do that, we can have both cars sniffing around the points again."

- AAP