Jenson Button – Canadian GP
Jenson Button celebrated his greatest victory after overtaking Red Bull’s Formula One World champion Sebastian Vettel on the last lap of a rain-delayed Canadian Grand Prix thriller.
Vettel, who skidded wide under relentless pressure just a few corners from the finish, recovered from his error to take second place ahead of Australian teammate Mark Webber.
The race proved to be no less than a chaotic epic packed with memorable incidents and even had been halted for more than two hours as rain lashed the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The race, punctuated by five safety car periods as well as the rain delay, finished more than four hours after it started.
Along the way he squeezed McLaren teammate and fellow Briton Lewis Hamilton into the wall and out of the race and also collided with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, ending the Spaniard’s hopes when his car spun and was stuck on a kerb.
Despite his error, Vettel stretched his overall championship lead to 60 points with the 23 year old German now on 161 to Button’s 101.
Button made six visits to the pit lane – five regular stops and one drive-through penalty – before storming back into contention as the track dried.
“We did a lot of things to contribute to the show today but at the end of the day that was just fantastic,” said McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh.
“We knew we had to put pressure on Sebastian and he made a mistake. You can forgive him for that. He’s driven so well this year but Jenson was just incredible. That’s the stuff of champions, that’s the stuff of dreams. He had the confidence, he went for it, and he just attacked and attacked. What a fantastic result for him and the team.”
Seven-time World champion Michael Schumacher, a seven-time winner in Canada, narrowly missed out on the first podium of his comeback by bringing his Mercedes home in fourth place.
Russian Vitaly Petrov finished fifth for Renault while Brazilian Felipe Massa forced his way past Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi on the line in a virtual photo-finish.
Tags: Canada, Canadian Grand Prix, F1, Formula One, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, Montreal, Sebastian Vettel
