F1 Canadian GP 2011: The exceptional recovery drive of Jenson Button
17th June 2022The Canadian Grand Prix has had its fair share of shocking moments but nothing comes close to Jenson Button’s drive to victory, in recent years.
The Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve has had some shocking moments since its debut on the calendar, in 1978, where the fellow Canadian Gilles Villeneuve secured victory in his 312T3 Ferrari. Fittingly, the circuit was soon renamed after him.
Despite then-Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel’s furious moment in the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix, when he lost the race due to a five-second time penalty, nothing has come close to Button’s smashing drive on rain-soaked circuit in Montreal.
The 2011 Canadian GP was dubbed ‘the race of the century,’ and rightly so. During the 2020 break, when F1 stopped due to the outbreak of Coronavirus, the memorable race was relived with Martin Brundle, Ted Kravitz, Paul Di Resta and Button on Sky Sports F1‘s YouTube Channel.
How it unfolded…
It was June 12, 2011 and rain had lashed down prior to the race. Red Bull’s defending Vettel started on pole as his teammate Mark Webber started P4 after the Australian suffered a KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) issue in qualifying, while Button started P7 directly behind his McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton who started the race in P5.
Due to the poor weather, the race had started behind the safety car and it would take four laps before race control allowed the drivers to finally race under green-flag conditions.
It wasn’t long before the safety car was redeployed into action, on lap eight of 70. As both Button and Hamilton raced down the main straight, the 2008 world champion moved over to the pit wall to steal P6 away from his teammate.
However, Brawn’s world champion clipped the young Briton and – with suspected suspension damage – Hamilton soon retired from the race. It was later found the McLaren driver only suffered a puncture and could have continued with the race.
Button was soon recalled to the pit lane after the steward deemed he sped behind the safety car, and he was handed with a drive through penalty. Once the punishment was served, the 2009 world champion dropped from P6 to P15.
Despite the earlier rainfall, the heavens opened up once again on lap 19. As a result, visibility quickly diminished and session was soon suspended via a red flag. After two hours and four minutes, the race was back underway – behind the safety car.
Button’s earlier contact with Hamilton wasn’t the former champions only incident that day. The McLaren driver was ordered to pit, once again, after he made contact with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso into turn three as the two drivers went side-by-side into the tight corner. The safety car soon went back out onto the track as the marshals worked to clear away the 150° Italia Ferrari.
After the McLaren’s stop, this dropped Button down to 21st – and last. But, with 20 laps still left to go, the 2009 champion had recovered to P10 after he secured the position from Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari. Two laps later, when a dry line was formed, Button swapped his wet weather tyres for the dry slicks after Webber made the initial call on lap 51.
On lap 57, the safety car was called out once more, after Lotus’ Nick Heidfield drove over his front wing due to contact with Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi. This allowed the pack to be bunched up for the final time, where Button sat P4 behind Webber in the race order. The race resumed on lap 61.
Button finally dispatched Webber at the end of lap 64 to move up into P3, when the Australian cut the final corner. In a bid to avoid a collision, the McLaren slipped onto the wet patch of track but managed to keep his car out of the wall. With a great exit out of the iconic hairpin which allowed Button to overtake Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher into the penultimate corner, on the same lap he overtook on Webber.
After a dominant performance, it looked set for Vettel to seal yet another win in his championship-winning season. However, as the 2010 champion came under pressure from the McLaren, Vettel made a fatal mistake for the race win as he tried to keep Button behind.
On the final lap, into the braking zone of turn six, Vettel placed his right tyres off from the dry line and onto the wet patch. This caused the leading Red Bull to momentarily lose control of his car, and allowed Button to move up into the race lead with ease.
With no pressure from Vettel, the last standing McLaren was able to comfortably march on to victory for half a lap.
Name us a better Canadian F1 race, in recent times… We’ll wait.
That’s it for the article: F1 Canadian GP 2011: The exceptional recovery drive of Jenson Button! What other iconic moments do you remember from the Canadian Grand Prix? Let us know in the comments!
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
