Jenson Button Wins the Best Race of the 2011 Season in Canada

Patrick AllenJun 12, 2011

The Canadian Grand Prix never fails to impress. I have to admit after a pretty mediocre qualifying session and a delay of over two hours after just 25 laps, I was beginning to worry about the 2011 race.

But, when the race restarted at 15:50, we were treated to easily the best race of 2011, and one of the greatest final laps I’ve seen in a long time. I mean, when was the last time we had a photo finish in Formula One?

Of course, the actual start of the race was pretty dull, as the cars simply lapped behind the safety car. However, when the race was started properly at the end of lap four, there was madness!

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Fernando Alonso had been able to cling to Sebastian Vettel expertly as the Red Bull man pulled away, but Alonso was unable to make it past him as the cars darted into turn one.

The real action was further back, as Lewis Hamilton drove into the side of Mark Webber going into turn one.

The McLaren and Red Bull cars both spun off of the racing line, but Webber came out of the incident in a far worse shape. Hamilton dropped back to P7, and Webber found himself in P14. I think the general consensus seems to be that Webber gave Hamilton plenty of space, and that the incident was probably more the McLaren driver’s fault.

As the cars crossed the line to finish their first racing lap, the positions were as follows:

Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Nico Rosberg, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Paul di Resta, Nick heidfeld, Kamui Kobayashi, Vitaly Petrov, Pastor Maldinado, Adrian Sutil, Mark Webber, Sebastien Buemi, Rubens Barrichello, Pedro de la Rosa, Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovalianen, Timo Glock, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Jamie Alguersuari (who started from the pits), Narain Karthikeyan, Jerome D’Ambrosio (who was able to start after the stewards decided he had done enough to prove his speed in practice).

In front, Vettel began to pull away, but there was some great action further back as Michael Schumacher battled with the McLarens.

This fight went on until lap 7, when Lewis Hamilton attempted to pass Schumacher at turn 10. The Mercedes man was having none of it though, and forced the McLaren wide, allowing Jenson Button to take P6.

What followed on the next lap was sheer madness!

At the end of lap 8, Button came out of the final corner with a poor grip on his position, followed very closely by Lewis Hamilton. Button held his position down the straight, but Hamilton was clearly preparing for a move. Hamilton decided to make a move up the inside of Button, but visibility was extremely poor and Button simply didn’t see his teammate as he moved over to the racing line.

The McLarens touched, and Hamilton was forced into the wall and wrecked his rear right wheel. Jenson was left wondering what his teammate was trying to do.

I think it was a very unfortunate accident, but I have to say in those conditions I think Hamilton really should have backed off. I also think Hamilton was unwise to continue driving around the circuit hoping to make it back to the pits. There were plenty of safe places to pull off, but Hamilton’s McLaren eventually stopped at turn five in a position that meant that the safety car had to be deployed.

Hamilton has been under investigation three times in his short stint in the Canadian Grand Prix. It’s been a bad couple of races for the McLaren driver, and I expect he’ll want to put them firmly behind him as we head back to Europe.

Jenson Button was the first driver to fit intermediate tires under the safety car. This was a big call by McLaren, and all of the other teams took notice as Button started to overtake comfortably and put in fast lap times when the race was re-started on lap 12.

It was a mixed restart for the last remaining McLaren driver, as although he had done a great job to make up places, soon afterwards Button learned that he had to take a drive through penalty for speeding under the safety car. (Hamilton was also speeding, but obviously was unable to take a penalty at this stage).

Button took his penalty early, but picked up where he left off when he rejoined the race. Ferrari and Mercedes both decided that the intermediate was the tire to be on, and pulled Alonso, Rosberg, and Schumacher in.

Strangely, although the four frontrunners on intermediates seemed to be lapping well, so were Massa and Vettel on the full wets out front.

Literally one lap after Ferrari and Mercedes had made their move, the rain started to fall harder and it became clear that the right tire to use was the full wet. The rain was so heavy that the safety car was brought out again, and before long the race was red flagged on lap 25, 13:45 local time.

The race restarted at 15:50 and we had to sit through 9 laps of safety car procession. Still, Canada didn’t disappoint, as even under the safety car we got a retirement from Heikki Kovalainen.

The safety car pitted on lap 34, and after that the action didn't let up until the checkered flag.

There were tussles here, there, and everywhere as the drivers found their rhythm again. Soon into the restart it became clear that it was time to switch to the intermediate tires, and many drivers took to the pits.

Soon after this pit stop phase, we got our second huge scalp of the day when Alonso and Button touched going into turn 3. The collision was a pure racing incident but it left Alonso beached and out, and Button limping around the track with a puncture.

This brought the safety car out yet again; the positions were as follows:

Vettel, Kobayashi, Massa, Heidfeld, di Resta, Webber, Schumacher, Petrov, Rosberg, Sutil, Barrichello, Maldinado, Alguersuari, Buemi, D’Ambrosio, Glock, de la Rosa, Trulli, Karthikeyan, Liuzzi, Button (who had pitted after his collision)

The race restarted again on lap 42, and while Schumacher and Webber brilliantly battled at the front, Button put his foot down and began to carve up the back of the grid.

The racing was close and absolutely fantastic. I think Webber, Schumacher and Button in particular were all driving their socks off.

By lap 51, it was time to come in for slicks and this only added to the madness, as although the racing line was fine, if any driver went onto the wet track, they were finished. Massa found this out the hard way when he wrecked his front wing trying to pass a back marker at turn seven.

By lap 54 the top six were fantastically close, and the positions were as follows:

Vettel, Schumacher, Webber, Kobayashi, Heidfeld, Button, Petrov, Barrichello, Rosberg, Alguersuari

There were overtakes galore, but the action really heated up when Button rocketed up to P4 behind a fantastic battle between Schumacher and Webber.

When the safety car was brought out yet again on lap 57, the prospect of an extremely close finish was almost too much to bear.

The safety car period ended with just 10 laps to go, and what followed was simply stunning. Webber passed Schumacher down the final straight but had to give the position back when he cut the final chicane.

Webber missed the chicane again on the next lap, and Button bravely flew past on the front straight on the wet line.

Button soon closed in on Schumacher and overtook the Mercedes man without the use of DRS at the end of lap 67. Unfortunately for Schumacher, he lost the final podium place to Webber soon after this.

The question now was could Button catch and pass Vettel in the remaining three or four laps?

He was able to catch up, but with just one tantalizing lap left, where was Jenson going to pass?

It was neck and neck through the first sector, but we finally had confirmation that Vettel was human when the Red Bull man went wide under immense pressure allowing Button through and amazingly into the lead!

The crowd went wild, and Vettel chased Button down right to the checkered flag. We even got a photo finish when Massa cleverly utilised his DRS across the finish line to steal Kobayashi’s P6.

There really isn’t much more I can say about this race. The Canadian Grand Prix is a classic for a reason, and I can’t see how anyone could have been disappointed with what we got today.

Simply awesome.

Drivers’ Title Top Three:

Vettel 161

Button 101

Webber 94

Constructors’ Title Top Three:

Red Bull 255

McLaren 186

Ferrari 101

Result:

1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes

2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault