Button’s path to victory

Jenson Button’s victory in the Canadian Grand Prix was simply astonishing and may turn into the defining moment of his career at McLaren. In addition to a collision with his teammate, a penalty for speeding behind the Safety Car, and a puncture, he made 5 pitstops, 20 overtaking manoeuvres, raced his way from last place to first in only 33 laps, and took the lead just six corners from the chequered flag.

McLaren boss, Martin Whitmarsh, was understandably excited after the race and said “I think it was one of the best wins in the history of F1, let alone his. There were punctures, he had to change the front wing, and from 21st I don’t know how many times he had to overtake people. He just drove fantastically well. He kept focused. He applied as much pressure as he had to to get past and really did a fantastic job. This was 90 per cent him and 10 per cent the car. He did a great, great, great job.”

After such a busy Grand Prix it was hard to dissect exactly how Button moved up and down through the field, but this was his incredible path to victory.

Lap 1: Race starts behind the Safety Car. Jenson is 7th.
Lap 4: Safety Car pits. Racing begins.
Lap 6: Overtakes Hamilton. Moves into 6th.
Lap 8: Collides with Hamilton. Safety Car deployed. Pits for intermediate tyres. Loses places to Schumacher, Kobayashi, Heidfeld, Petrov, Webber, Di Resta, and Maldonado. 12th.
Lap 12: Safety Car pits. Racing resumes.
Lap 13: Pits for drive through penalty, only drops one position to Barrichello. 13th.
Lap 16: Overtakes Maldonado. Moves ahead of Barrichello who pits. 11th.
Lap 17: Moves ahead of Petrov who pits. 10th.
Lap 18: Overtakes Di Resta. Moves ahead of Schumacher who pits. 8th.
Lap 19: Safety Car Deployed. Pits for full wet tyres. Loses places to Di Resta, Schumacher, and de la Rosa. 11th.
Lap 21: Moves ahead of Schumacher who pits. 10th.
Lap 25: Race red flagged.
Lap 26: Race resumes behind Safety Car.
Lap 33: Safety Car pits. Racing resumes.
Lap 34: Overtakes de la Rosa. 9th.
Lap 35: Pits for intermediate tyres. Loses places to Rosberg, Karthikeyan, Trulli, D’Ambrosio, Schumacher, and Sutil. 15th.
Lap 36: Overtakes Karthikeyan and Sutil. Moves ahead of Trulli and D’Ambrosio who pit. 11th.
Lap 37: Collides with Alonso. Safety Car deployed. Pits to repair damage. Drops behind all runners to 21st – last place.
Lap 40: Safety Car pits. Racing resumes.
Lap 41: Overtakes Liuzzi. 20th.
Lap 42: Overtakes Trulli and Karthikeyan. 18th.
Lap 43: Overtakes Glock and D’Ambrosio. Moves ahead of Di Resta who pits. 15th.
Lap 44: Overtakes de la Rosa. 14th
Lap 45: Overtakes Buemi. Moves ahead of Sutil who pits. 12th
Lap 49: Overtakes Alguersuari and Maldonado. 10th
Lap 50: Moves ahead of Webber and Barrichello who pit. 8th.
Lap 51: Pits for slick tyres. Loses places to Webber and de la Rosa. 10th.
Lap 52: Moves ahead of de la Rosa who pits. 9th
Lap 53: Moves ahead of Rosberg and Massa who pit. 7th
Lap 54: Overtakes Heidfeld and Petrov. 5th
Lap 55: Overtakes Kobayashi. 4th
Lap 57: Safety Car deployed
Lap 59: Safety Car pits. Racing resumes.
Lap 64: Overtakes Webber. 3rd
Lap 65: Overtakes Schumacher. 2nd
Lap 69: Sets fastest lap of the race
Lap 70: Overtakes Vettel. 1st.

That collision

It was relieving that Jenson’s fine drive was not ruined by a penalty after the Grand Prix had finished. However, he might have been fortunate to escape a harsher assessment from the stewards regarding his collision with Lewis Hamilton.

The stewards said “It appears from the position of Hamilton at that moment (and is confirmed by the drivers) that Button was unlikely to have seen Hamilton. At the point of contact Button had not yet moved as far to the left of the track as he had on the previous lap, or that Schumacher had on that lap. The Stewards have concluded that it was reasonable for Hamilton to believe that Button would have seen him and that he could have made the passing manoeuvre. Further, the Stewards have concluded that it is reasonable to believe that Button was not aware of Hamilton’s position to his left”.

This is all true, and the stewards made a sensible decision, but the front-on camera angle of the collision suggests they might have given Jenson some benefit of the doubt.

When drivers exit the final chicane in Montreal they start moving gently to the left along the main straight to create an easier run through the upcoming right hand kink. This is particularly evident in the wet. Before the two McLaren drivers came together, Jenson only started moving left after looking into his mirrors. That certainly doesn’t mean he saw Lewis and was moving to squeeze him, but it does suggest that Jenson was trying to decide where to place his car in relation to Hamilton. It’s highly unlikely that Button knew exactly where Lewis was, but he would have been expecting an attack because he made a mistake going through the final chicane.

Jenson made one definite move to the left, but did so partway down the straight and only after looking in his mirrors. The stewards implied that Jenson was merely adopting his regular racing line and had no awareness of the other cars around him, but this might not be telling the full story.

The stewards made a good decision by declaring the collision as a racing incident but Jenson might have been expecting a different assessment.

The longest race of all time

At four hours and four minutes, Jenson Button will be credited with victory in the longest Grand Prix of all time. It’s a fascinating statistic, but is deceptive given that more than two hours of that time elapsed during the race suspension.

Up until last week the longest World Championship event in history was the 1951 Indianapolis 500. America’s most famous race was included in the early days of the World Championship to help expand its global appeal beyond Europe. Even though the average speeds at Indy were much higher than at any F1 Grand Prix, the race was much longer in terms of distance. Since the cars improved each year, it would make sense for the oldest complete Indianapolis 500 in the World Championship to be the longest , and that took place in 1951 (the 1950 event was stopped short due to rain). The race lasted 3 hours and 57 minutes, and was the first time that it had been completed in less than 4 hours.

The final Indianapolis 500 to be included in the World Championship was the 1960 event, and by that stage the increased performance of the cars had reduced the total race time to 3 hours and 36 minutes.

Prior to the Canadian Grand Prix, the longest World Championship Formula One race – without any interruptions such as red flags or safety cars – was the 1954 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring Nordschleife. This race was particularly long because it was run to 500km for the first time. In the 1950s, most Grand Prix events were run to different lengths (unlike the standard 300km today) but the longest races were held over roughly 500km. The German Grand Prix was often run over a shorter distance because the average speeds at the Nurburgring were relatively slow, but this changed in 1954 and the race covered the full 500km.

The Nurburgring was left off the 1955 calendar, but the following year it returned with another 500km race which lasted 3 hours and 38 minutes. It was a great indication of how much the cars had improved in just two years.

The race was shortened back to 342km in 1958.

Along with the 1954 German Grand Prix, three of the other seven championship races that year also ran for more than three hours. That is quite incredible, because man handling a 1950s Grand Prix car for that length of time is a massive achievement.

So is moving from last to first in just 33 laps.