Jenson Button claimed a fantastic victory in this year’s Canadian Grand Prix, after displacing Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel from first place on the very last lap.
In a race which saw just under half of the total laps run under safety car conditions due to the torrential weather and the numerous accidents that ensued as a result, Button had managed to pull through to greet the chequered flag first at the end of the races 70 laps. Buttons win was by no means straight forward however- having made a total of six visits to the pits, one visit being forced upon him after speeding under safety car conditions, and having been involved in two separate incidents that essentially knocked team mate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's hard charging Fernando Alonso out of the race, Buttons race was arguably more eventful than any of the other competitors in Montreal last Sunday.
After red flagging the race 25 laps in due to the arrival of a heavy rainstorm, and a break which lasted just under two hours, the race restarted again under safety car conditions, mush like how the race had initially started on lap one. With the pecking order in tatters, the grid lined up for a second time with Sebastian Vettel leading from a fantastically positioned Kamui Kobayashi, who unlike the majority of the drivers, had chosen not to pit for intermediates prior to the rainstorm that eventually brought out the red flag. In third place was Felipe Massa, reiterating the notion that he was slowly regaining the speed that has been absent from his performances since the end of the 2008 season. Jenson Button meanwhile, was in a lowly 10th place, having already made three pit stops in the controversial race. After a further stint behind the safety car, arguably for an unnecessarily long time, by the time the race eventually resumed at racing pace came in the track was ready for intermediate tyres. Michael Schumacher was the first to blink; his Mercedes team bought him in instantly for a set of the Pirelli intermediates, in move that worked wonders for the Germans race strategy. Fernando Alonso however lost time in his stop, and when exiting the pit lane he was racing a resurgent Jenson Button, who ran up the inside of him into a chicane and they collided, putting Alonso out of the race. Furthermore, Button had received a puncture from the contact, which meant he had to endure an entire lap with a punctured tyre, which eventually ended in him astonishingly making fifth pit stop of the afternoon.
After Alonso's stricken car was recovered under safety car condition's, Vettel was still at the head of the pack, and the way in which the safety car period had been brought out, he had managed to make an essentially 'free pit stop' for intermediates, retaining his position at the head of the field as a result. On the restart, Vettel again pulled clear of Kobayashi and Massa, who was hassling the Japanese driver for second place relentlessly. Behind the scrap for second place, Michael Schumacher was putting in his finest performance since his return to the sport last year; displacing both Di Resta and Heidfeld after the pair made contact that the infamous final chicane at the Montreal circuit. The German as a result was closing in rapidly on the Kobayashi/Massa scrap, closely followed by a similarly quick Red Bull of Mark Webber. On lap 50, Webber was the first front runner to pit for the Slick rubber, followed a lap later by the still resurgent McLaren of Jenson Button. Vettel was able to pick his moment with great insight thanks to his team-mates early switch to the slick tyres, and made his final stop on lap 53. With the pit stop stage for slick tyres out of the way, it was the Red Bull team who had seemingly missed the optimum moment to change tyres; prior to the pit stops, the fastest man on track, Jenson Button, was a gap of 21 seconds trailing Vettel. Come the end of the pit stops, Vettel maintained only a 15 second lead over the McLaren driver, who continued to hone in on the German even on the slick rubber.
Vettel’s problems were further compounded on lap 56, when Safety Car Bernd Mayländer was again called out on track after a collision involving Nick Heidfeld and Paul Di Resta left debris across the track on the exit to turn three. Heidfeld was in pursuit of Di Resta in a mid pack scrap, when a low apex speed from the Force India driver left the German with too little time to react, causing the Renaults nose to hit the rear end of the Force India. Seconds later, the upright element to Heidfeld front wing gave way, causing the wing itself to become lose underneath the car. Heidfeld as a result was a mere passenger in a thankfully low speed accident entering the turn four chicane. The Safety car period ended at the end of lap 60, leaving nine laps for an all out scrap fight for the victory. After displacing the scraping pair of Webber and Schumacher for second place, Jenson Button put in a series scorching laps, setting fastest sector after fastest sector for the last three laps of the race, hauling in a rare performance lacking Red Bull. Come the start of the final lap, Button was within the vital one second gap which would enable DRS further around the lap. Button never needed it though, as Vettel made a clumsy error by putting two wheels on the wet surface off line on the exit to turn five, gifting the lead to Button. Vettel did well to not spin his RB7, and managed to maintain second place ahead of team mate Mark Webber come the chequered flag, who narrowly beat Michael Schumacher, who none of the less put in a fantastic performance throughout the race.
However, the win was taken by Button in fairytale style. After making double the amount of stops to second place man Vettel, being in last position at the half way stage of the race, and being involved two separate incidents, the win was undoubtedly the finest of Jenson Button's illustrious career up to this point.
