Red Bull problems come as surprise to Button as McLaren are left with an exhausting wait

It has resulted in the perhaps surprise scenario that after eight grands prix, Button and McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton sit second and first in the championship, respectively, separated by just three points.

Red Bull's Mark Webber lies a further three points adrift, whilst team-mate Sebastian Vettel stands 19 points off the pace.

Remarkably, although there have been five different leaders in this year's title race, Vettel has not been one of them, despite the fact he was on pole in three of the first four races.

That came as a shock to Button when informed, but then he is at a loss to explain just why Red Bull are not walking away with the titles following their dominant start to the season.

"They've had a very quick car this year, and Seb's been very quick at times, but it's a strange one," said Button.

"They haven't got it together as often as I thought they would. In the last race in Canada they were quite quick considering the type of circuit, but again they finished fourth and fifth.

"It seems that one of their cars always has an issue in the race and they need to back off.

"I don't know if it's because they always push the car to the limit which makes them very quick in qualifying, and so they struggle in the race, I don't know.

"When they do get their act together they are awesomely quick and then they are almost unbeatable, as we saw when Webber won in Barcelona when he had a perfect weekend.

"But more often than not, they seem to have got it wrong somehow, be it reliability or strategy mistakes or crashing into each other.

"I think we've got it right a lot more. We've had our problems and reliability issues – Lewis and I have both stopped in a race and we had trouble in qualifying in Malaysia. But apart from that we've been pretty good, pretty on the ball."

A third successive one-two for McLaren, after Hamilton led home Button in the last two races in Turkey and Canada may be a tall order in tomorrow's European Grand Prix.

Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault are all utilising for the first time a blown diffuser at the rear of the car, a device that has given Red Bull a key advantage at certain times this season.

In simple terms, exhaust gases are directed through the diffuser, so speeding up the air flow, aiding grip, and ultimately performance.

It is a concept McLaren will not have on their car until the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in a fortnight's time. So for now, it is a waiting game to see how their rivals fare this weekend.

Button, who was ninth fastest at the end of yesterday's two 90-minute practice sessions behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, added: "Three teams have this funny exhaust system. If it gives them as much as we think it might they are going to be very competitive.

"There's a lot going on, so we just have to make sure we get our heads down and focus on making sure we get the best out of what we have. We have a car we know very well, so it's just about fine-tuning.

"Our car will be good around here, but the Red Bull is going to be quick, and Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari are going to be quick as well."

In front of his home fans, Alonso had a lap of 1min 39.283secs, just 0.056secs ahead of Vettel, and quicker than last season's pole set by Hamilton.

Hamilton was fifth overall behind Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, with the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa seventh, after missing half-an-hour of track time after stalling his car following a spin.