Jenson Button won a chaotic, four-hour Canadian Grand Prix which included six pit stops in the 2011 and it was one of the greatest feats in the history of Formula One.
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There was pouring rain. Cars crashed in big numbers on a drenched track. A suspension of over two hours happened. One driver pitted six times, one of which was a drive-through penalty. Yet, he still won the race. In the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, history was created when Britain’s Jenson Button won the race in dramatic circumstances. The race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on that day would be etched in folklore as one of the greatest comebacks in modern day racing.
Comebacks in sport are a fairytale. Barcelona’s win against Paris Saint Germain in the UEFA Champions League is legendary. India’s follow-on win against Australia in the 2001 Kolkata Test is epochal. But, none can compare to the sheer drama of what unfolded in the Canadian Grand Prix in 2011.
The race commenced behind the Safety car as it would have been suicidal for 22 cars to race each other on a drenched track. Luckily, the rain eased up and the circuit began to dry, so the Safety car dived in the pits. Unfortunately, there was a collision between Red Bull driver Mark Webber and Button’s teammate, Lewis Hamilton. Once again, the Safety Car came out and the normal race was delayed again.
When the race resumed, Jenson Button had a crash with Lewis Hamilton. For that crash, Button received a penalty and dropped down the order.
Button switched to intermediate tyres and made up time until the safety car made its third appearance on lap 20. However, the race was suspended for over two hours due to heavy rain. When the race restarted, the safety came out yet again and triggered another round of pit stops to change back to intermediates with the track drying quickly. However, the safety car came back out again, and Button was the culprit again, with his new victim being Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, with the Spaniard retiring.
Unfortunately, the crash with Alonso dropped him further down the order after a fifth pit stop. However, this was not the end of Button’s troubles. The British driver had to make a sixth pit stop. The reason: A drive-through penalty yet again for speeding in the pit lane. It seemed the race was over for Button.
Yet, he did not give up. The track dried out significantly. In the differing conditions and various tyre changes, Button was the best to adapt. However, he turned everything around when he was in sight of the podium but behind race leader Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher.
Webber made a mistake, promoting Jenson Button on the podium, before he made short work of the legendary German a lap later. With five laps left, he was three seconds behind Vettel and eating into his lead by half a second per lap.
With every passing lap, Button was closing the gap on Vettel. Heading into the final lap, Button was half a second behind Vettel. There were only three or four corners left for Vettel. But, Vettel made a big mistake and slid wide of the track. That allowed Button to overtake him. When he crossed the finish line, Jenson Button had done the unbelievable and won a dramatic Canadian Grand Prix.
“I saw this Red Bull going sideways and was gobsmacked. I just held my breath and stared at him as I drove past. In a 70-lap race, I led half a lap. I crossed the line, and I’d never seen my team so excited,” Button would recollect after the end of the race.
There were mistakes. The crashes with Alonso and Hamilton meant it was not a super-clean race. Vettel, by comparison, made just a single error, coming at the very end. But Button’s real magic started as the rain stopped. From then on, he hardly put a foot wrong, proving his skills in greasy conditions and making the tyre calls at exactly the right moments.
It may have lacked the dominance of some of his other wins, and it may have been lucky in places, but Canada 2011 brought out the characteristics that we most fondly remember from Button’s F1 career.
If one has to sum up Button’s career, the Canadian Grand Prix was a reflection of his career. Button was left without a team for the 2009 season. In February 2009, Ross Brawn led a management buyout of Honda, creating Brawn GP and recruiting Button as a driver. Button went on to win a record-equalling six of the first seven races of the 2009 season, securing the World Drivers’ Championship at the Brazilian Grand Prix, having led on points all season.
In 2011, with six pit stops, two collisions and plenty of mistakes, it summed up the crescendo of Button in his F1 career. It was a shame that he had to end that year as the runner-up. But, for F1 fans, this is definitely one of the best races anyone has seen in the modern era of racing. Comebacks could not be scripted in better ways than on that wet afternoon in Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
