Formula 1: Excitement and action grips Canadian Grand Prix as rain offers Button his chance to shine

Sun 12th June 2011: The 2011 Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, may well be remembered as one of the most eventful, exciting and suspenseful races in Formula 1 history, with safety cars starts, red flags and race re-starts, it was also one of the most prolonged races ever.

Jenson Button had the drive of his career at the Canadian Grand Prix, his tenth career victory so far. Starting in seventh place after torrential rain triggered a safety car start. He survived six pitstops, changing tyres from full wets to intermediates and even a drive through penalty. After accidentally putting his team mate (Lewis) into the pitlane wall on lap seven after which he pitted taking a decision to crucially change to intermediate tyres. Everyone thought it was all over for Button as as he struggled for grip, and on lap 24, the race was red-flagged as conditions became undriveable.

“That was the best victory of my career, and today is therefore a very special day for me. I fought my way from last to first to win the race, and I overtook the cars in front of me on the track. To win a grand prix by getting one over on your rivals with a series of strong overtaking moves makes it even better.

“Races in changing conditions are always very tricky – but I love it when you’ve got to search for grip on the track rather than knowing in advance where it is. It was an amazing victory – I don’t think it could have been any better, especially after Monte-Carlo where we thought we had a win in the bag but were then disappointed at the very end. I was a little bit fortunate today when Sebastian [Vettel] made a mistake on the last lap, but I think we deserved that bit of luck!

“As far as the incident with Lewis is concerned, I couldn’t see a thing behind me except a blur of Vodafone rocket-red, but that could have been my rear wing: obviously, it’s the same colour as Lewis’s car. I moved to the left, which is the racing line, then I felt a bang, and I feared it was game over for both of us. Lewis knows that I didn’t do it on purpose, and I know that he didn’t do it on purpose either. I spoke to him before the race restarted, and it’s all good.

“I want to offer big congrats to Dave [Robson], my race engineer. We haven’t won together before, so this is a very special result for him as well as for me. Now, I just want to enjoy this moment; it’s been a long time coming and it couldn’t have been much sweeter.

The race restarted behind the safety car nearly two hours later. As conditions dried out, the leading runners moved onto intermediate tyres, then slick tyres. Button made a final stop for the supersoft tyres on lap 51 to win the race by 2.7 seconds, having taken full advantage of one more safety car period with just 12 laps to go.

The final eight laps saw a frenetic battle for the podium places, with Vettel defending from Button, Webber and Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher. Button gained enormously on Vettel close enough to activate his DRS which gave him an extra boost, before Vettel made a rare human mistake, running wide on the slippery surface, Button slipped by.

Sebastien Vettel: 2nd-

“Of course I’m disappointed. I think it was a very difficult race from start to finish and we led every single lap, apart from the last one, or part of the last one. I think I was probably too conservative when I was in the lead after the last safety car; I didn’t open the gap enough and was trying to hold the gap to the cars behind.

Then I saw Jenson coming through, I was pushing and thought it would be enough to the end, but obviously it wasn’t, as I made a mistake. It’s down to me, I locked up the rear a little bit and what you have to do then is open up the car and go a bit straighter, there’s only one line and I ended up in the wet, so it was quite easy for him to pass. But, surely I think it was a good day today, it’s easy to make mistakes and there were a lot of cars not finishing, so it’s good to get the points.

That said, at the moment – when you have it in your hands and you give it away – then it’s not the sweetest feeling. But, I think all in all, it was a good race for us today.”

Mark Webber 3rd:

“It was an eventful race! I had a few people to pass after the break; it wasn’t too hard until the dry lineappeared on the racing line and it was slippery off line. It was then very hard to clear some of the guys,as it meant there was such a narrow window to get down the inside of people. When you have experienced guys like Michael (Schumacher) and Nick (Heidfeld) to pass, well those guys know whatthey’re doing, so it becomes even trickier.

I decided to roll the dice and go onto the slicks. I was happy to see that not everyone followed immediately, so I had two laps which was enough to bring me back in the game for the podium. Then it was a pretty good fight with Michael, we both wanted the same bit of track when we were braking for the chicane, but when JB arrived, he was absolutely flying. Today’s result means plenty of points for the team and it’s a good result, so I’m pretty happy with that.”

Michael Schumacher 4th-
“I am leaving this race with one eye laughing and one eye crying, as I am not sure if I should be excited or sad about it. Having been in second place towards the end, I would obviously have loved to finish there and be on the podium again. But even if it did not work out in the very end, we can be happy about the result and the big fight we put in. A good strategy after the red flag made it possible, and I am very happy for our team. I would also like to send a big compliment out to the spectators who stayed with us in those difficult circumstances for so long and even cheered us up. That was impressive, and I am glad that I could play my part in entertaining them.”

Lewis Hamilton – DNF

“First of all, I have to offer my heartfelt congratulations to Jenson – he drove an absolutely incredible race and thoroughly deserved this victory. It was an utterly fantastic performance, from a truly great driver.

“I’m also sorry for the team; they’ve worked really hard this week and we could have done with the points that a two-car finish would have earned us today.

“Although the conditions were very tricky from the start, I had pretty good grip and I was doing the best I could to keep the car on the track; I think I had pretty good race pace, and I didn’t have any particular problems.

“I touched Mark’s [Webber] car after he braked a bit early into the first corner. He left me enough room, but I touched the inside kerb and understeered into him.

“Then I started fighting back. After I fell back behind Jenson, he outbraked himself into the final chicane and got a poor exit, so I was able to get a good run on him. It felt to me like I was halfway alongside him down the pits straight – but, as he probably hadn’t spotted me, he continued moving across on the racing line.

“There was no room for me, so I hit the wall. Of course, I don’t think it was intentional: I know Jenson well enough and I know he wouldn’t do that. He’s a good guy.

“So, now, I’ll just focus on the next race and the rest of the season. It would be great if we could qualify a little higher up the grid in order to stay out of trouble in Valencia; but our race pace is good and I really want to do well there.”