Button breaks the Bulls

Button breaks the Bulls

The Canadian Grand Prix was probably the most exciting race of the year so far. Today marked a couple of firsts for this year, the first wet race of the year and the first time Vettel has made a mistake in a Grand Prix this year. Oh, and of course the first time that Schumacher looked completely like his old self.

The race started under the safety car and ensured we had more than 4 cars racing after the first corner. The two McLaren's were running with a bit more rear wing this weekend and certainly looked to be in a good position when the rain fell on Sunday. The safety car came in at the end of the fourth lap. Hamilton knocked Webber into a spin at the first corner, further enhancing his reckless reputation. Button was in difficulties on the first racing lap, losing places to Schumacher and the recovering Hamilton. In the meantime, Vettel pulled off his disappearing act at the front. Hamilton and Schumacher nearly had a coming together at the hairpin, Schumacher being his normal robust self and removing Hamilton from the confines of the racetrack, he recovered having lost just one position to Button, leading to the first major drama of the race.

At the exit of the last corner Hamilton got a great run on Button, he moved alongside Button who hadn't seen him and took his normal line, leaving Hamilton with nowhere to go but into Button's car and the pitwall. Hamilton retired with rear suspension failure and left the car in a precarious position causing another safety car while Button continued. After pitting for intermediates, Button was handed a drive through penalty for breaking the speed limit under the safety car. On rejoining the track, he was starting to fly whilst everyone else was on wets, making up a few places on one lap and finding himself back in the points very quickly. Alonso decided he wanted some of this and pitted for intermediates.

The rain then came down hard, negating Button's good work and making his and Alonso's intermediate tyres utterly useless and creating another trip out for the safety car. Throughout all this, Vettel stayed calm in the lead after a pit stop, Kobayashi was in second and Di Resta found himself in sixth place. The conditions caused the race to be red flagged on lap 25. This gave the marshals some fun, sweeping water from the track and then looking confused when it somehow became wet again immediately in the heavy rain.

A while later the drivers set off following the safety car, which must have spent more laps leading the field than anyone else. It was all neat and tidy after the safety car left the track and wasn't long before there were queues of people in the pits changing to intermediate tyres, but then Button had another incident, this time with Fernando Alonso. Alonso wound up beached on a kerb and out of the race, causing another safety car period whilst Button stopped to replace his punctured tyre.

After the safety car pulled off the circuit, it was Schumacher who began flying setting several fastest laps whilst Button began to carve his way back through the field from last place. Schumacher pounced on Kobayashi and Massa as they tripped over each other and took second place before pitting for slicks and commencing battle with Webber for position. At this point, Heidfeld chose to end his race in the wall after removing his front wing on the back of Kobayashi's Sauber causing, you've guessed it, a safety car period.

This time we also had a marshal nearly being hit by a couple of the cars as he did a few comedy falls trying to retrieve pieces of Renault from the track. Entertaining, but uncomfortable to watch. This set up a grandstand finish with Vettel, Schumacher, Webber and Button nose to tail.

The final few laps were full of drama right at the front. It started with Webber and Schumacher scrapping, Webber trying to pass Schumacher with Button watching and biding his time. Button then surged by Webber using his slicks well on a wet part of the circuit before making short work of Schumacher and heading after Vettel like a man possessed. He caught him quickly and was under a second away heading into the last lap. Unlike Spain a few weeks ago, Vettel cracked and made a mistake, Button slithered passed into the lead of the race and stayed there taking a brilliant victory as Webber found his way around Schumacher, depriving him of his first podium since his comeback.

So in the end, the race ran the full distance and didn't finish behind the safety car. It'll take some beating next time out, a big ask for Valencia which hasn't been high on excitement since joining the calendar, but who knows? Formula One has never been better.

Stuart McCann is from IntentsGP.com:  For Silverstone or Spa, make your F1 Weekend Hassle Free - Camp with intentsGP!

Recent comments on this article:

#1 Jimmy@enterF1 | 13 Jun 2011, 22:31 Reply »

The Bull's have been broken - There is a god!

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• The Bull's have been broken - There is a god!
  by Jimmy@enterF1
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