Vodafone McLaren’s Jenson Button beats Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel during last lap of Canadian F1 GP thriller !

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Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Jenson Button made sensational amends to McLaren, after involuntarily taking team mate Lewis Hamilton out of a chaotic Canadian Grand Prix on the eighth lap today (12.06.2011), by snatching victory from Sebastian Vettel halfway round the final lap, when the German Red Bull driver came of the dry racing line and spun.

The fragmented race began behind the safety car due to heavy rain, started to dry, then got much worse as the rain returned and immediately reminded the spectators of the heavy monsoon rain accompanying the GP of Malaysia.

Things started to go bad for the Woking based Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team by the second corner as Lewis Hamilton touched the Red Bull of Australian Mark Webber and forcing the latter into a spin. Apparently Lewis Hamilton is on the way to become a permanent magnet for the race stewards, after his statements, which took place after the tour de force which took place at the Monaco GP. But that was nothing compared to the bad news that were waiting for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team a few laps later …

Sebastan Vettel led easily from the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa who were desperately trying to keep up with the leading Red Bull, with the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes' chasing the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. Lewis Hamilton passed Jenson Button but dropped behind him on the sixth lap as an overtaking move on 7 times Formula 1 Word Champion Michael Schumacher failed to come off at the hairpin. Going across the start/finish line at the end of lap seven Lewis Hamilton pulled out to pass his team mate Jenson Button, but as the latter moved to the left they made contact and Lewis Hamilton hit the pit wall. His car sustained a puncture and after trying to limp home he was instructed by his crew to pull off to minimize the possible damage.

Out came the safety car again, involuntarily reminding us of the breath-taking internal team duels of Ayrton Senna/Alain Prost and Nelson Piquet/Nigel Mansell, which sometimes made the team in question lose vital points in the two Formula 1 world championships.

Afterwards Jenson Button stated that he simply could not see anything in his mirrors, because of the spray.

Then came more bad news for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team: Jenson Button got a drive-through penalty for going too fast behind the original safety car.

He served the penalty, then dived in for intermediate Pirellis and was the fastest man on the track for a while. Spanish Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso did likewise, but as they both were just moving up the order, the rain came back. Due to the heavy rain, the water fountains created by the cars, the impaired visibility and several vital remarks by the Formula 1 drivers on the track, the race was red flagged.


At the end of lap 24 the order was: 2010 World Champion Sebastian Vettel in the lead, the amazing Kamui Kobayashi who had yet to pit his Sauber in second, followed by Felipe Massa, who had stopped, the Renaults of Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov, Paul di Resta in the Force India, Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso, Pedro de la Rosa and Jenson Button.

That was how they restarted two hours and five minutes later when the rain finally eased and the track was inspected numerous times. Getting rid of the excess water floods took the working force a lot of time and patience as the rain was pouring heavily on the track.

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel soon opened a gap again as Kobayashi fought a valiant rear-guard action against Ferrari driver Felipe Massa and a suddenly emerging Michael Schumacher. The German rain deity moved up to second place on the 51st lap as Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi slid momentarily off the track and held Felipe Massa wide as he recovered, reminding us of his supreme reflexes and driving finesse. The Brazilian Ferrari driver sustained front-wing damage which dropped him back after another pit stop, but now the men to watch were Australian Red Bull driver Mark Webber and 2009 Formula 1 World champion and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Jenson Button, who on intermediate Pirellis and then slicks had started to charge back from last place after having to make an unscheduled stop after a collision on the 37th lap with Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard spun and the safety car came out yet again as the Ferrari was parked on a chicane kerb. After the race, the stewards investigated the incident and deemed no action necessary.

Just as the race seemed to return to normal, another accident took place, this time when hurried Nick Heidfeld tagged the back of Kobayashi and then had the front wing of his Renault fold back under the car, resulted in a fifth safety car deployment on the 56th lap.
It was a very busy day for the Mercedes SLS AMG safety car driver Bernd Maylaender, who spent a lot of time on the track during the Canadian GP, which lasted for a total time of more than 4 hrs.
The race resumed for its final sector on the 61st lap, now with DRS enabled by the FIA. Michael Schumacher came under intense pressure from Mark Webber and Jenson Button. The Englishman soon overtook both cars and set off after Sebastian Vettel, slashing down a 3.1s advantage until the German made a crucial mistake on the final lap as he slid wide on a wet patch and surrendered the lead. Now Jenson Button’s redemption was complete.

Behind the leading duo, Australian Red Bull driver Mark Webber passed Michael Schumacher to take third despite a problematic downshift and intermittent KERS performance, while Vitaly Petrov and a recovering Felipe Massa overtook a fading Kami Kobayashi. Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi made it a good day for Toro Rosso by taking eighth and 10th places, sandwiching Rubens Barrichello’s Williams.
Pedro de la Rosa’s return to F1 racing earned him 12th, after recovering from an accident during the free practice, while Tonio Luzzi beat the Virgins fair and square as HRT won the �new teams’ section after a super drive. He was followed by the Virgins of Jerome D’Ambrosio and Timo Glock, and team mate Narain Karthikeyan who was penalised from 14th to 17th for cutting a chicane. Jarno Trulli was Team Lotus’s sole survivor in 16th after Heikki Kovalainen’s T127 broke a driveshaft.

Force India had a bad day too; Paul di Resta was up in sixth place early on, survived some adventures before serving a drive-through for contact with Rosberg, and then crashed near the end and was classified 18th. German Force India driver Adrian Sutil got a similar penalty for overtaking under the safety car, and was also delayed by a puncture after also hitting Mercedes GP driver Nico Rosberg.


Sebastian Vettel extends his leading world championship points to 161 as Lewis Hamilton drops to fourth on 85, behind Jenson Button on 101 and Mark Webber on 94. Fernando Alonso remains fifth on 69 points.
In the constructors’ stakes, Red Bull leads by 255 points to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes' 186 and Ferrari’s 101 points.

AE

12.06.2011