JENSON Button looked very relaxed, last night, for a man who had been beaten to pole position for this afternoon's Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul.

The 29-year-old from Frome, Somerset, was edged out in qualifying by Germany's Sebastian Vettel, but with such a comfortable margin in the points table, Button knows that he can afford to play the percentage game in the race and still be in total control of the championship. Vettel is 28 points behind, so he needs some wins with Button not finishing to get back into the title race.

Button has the tactical advantage in the race, as he will be making his first pit stop two laps after Vettel, so his team will have the chance to watch what fuel and tyres Vettel takes on and adjust his strategy to beat him.

Operationally, Brawn have done a better job in the races so far than Red Bull, but they know that there will be no margin for error today.

"I think these guys Red Bull are doing a very good job and we are also," said Button. "It is down to getting the best out of the equipment and getting the best team effort tomorrow. That is what will win the race and we have got to wait and see who that is."

This is one of two consecutive tracks where Button's Brawn Mercedes car was expected to give second best to the Red Bull Renault. Vettel did not disappoint: he was fastest in all three qualifying sessions yesterday and picked up his second pole position of the season. This was a pretty impressive recovery from Vettel, who lost a lot of preparation time on Friday due to an engine failure.

"I think we do have a very competitive car in the race," he said. "I was not that confident in qualifying but then I had a better and better feeling, so in the final part of qualifying I was quite confident to be up there at the front. Again, it was very tight but finally we made it and put the car on pole again."

Pole position changed hands three times in the final moments of a terrific session. First Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber grabbed it, then Button went faster, but Vettel got the lap which mattered at the end.

Button's team-mate and nearest challenger in the points, Rubens Barrichello, was third, but went his own way in Q3; whereas Vettel and Button went with the soft tyre, Barrichello did three consecutive laps on the hard tyre, the last of which gave him third place.

McLaren had a tough day: the car is clearly not confidence-inspiring in fast corners and the drivers complained of a lack of grip. Hekki Kovalainen lines up 14th on the grid, while Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in the first part of qualifying for the second race in a row. He is enduring the kind of time that Button was having this time last year. The pair have quite literally swapped roles.

The Ferrari challenge was more blunt than anticipated. Felipe Massa, the winner at this Istanbul track for the last three years, was a whisker behind his team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen, the Ferraris sixth and seventh.

But once again the racing is almost incidental to the dramas taking place off the circuit. With just five days to go until the governing body, the FIA, issues the list of accepted entries for next year's world championship, the possibility remains that big name teams like Ferrari, McLaren Brawn and Red Bull may not be among them.

These teams, along with manufacturers Renault, Toyota and BMW, are united in an organisation called FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) and are holding out in a long-running dispute with FIA president Max Mosley, who has introduced new rules for 2010 based on a £40 million budget cap, instead of the £200 million some teams spend.

When entries closed last Friday for the 2010 champ-ionship, the FIA had received many from new teams attracted by the low cost formula. The FIA are conducting due diligence to establish how many of the new teams are viable.

Meanwhile, the eight FOTA teams (including Red Bull's sister outfit Toro Rosso) made a block entry which was conditional upon the 2009 rules being continued, which means dropping the budget cap idea.

The two sides seem far apart this weekend. The key to it is Ferrari. The FIA say Ferrari have a legally binding contract to race in F1 until 2012. This is a legacy of a special deal struck in 2005, to avert a manufacturers' breakaway series.

Ferrari argues that the FIA breached the terms of that agreement by introducing the budget cap rules. It seems almost certain that this issue will have to be tested in a court as neither side looks like backing down.

This would delay the confirmation of the rules for next year and make it extremely difficult for the new entrants to design and build a car in time. For example, as things stand, the 2010 rules call for no refuelling, which means the fuel tank for next year would have to be twice the size it is currently. Until the rules are finalised and a definitive size is known, engineers cannot even start to map out a car design.