Extended Race Highlights | 2011 Canadian Grand Prix

The race starts now. There is no formation lap. How quickly would you bring that safety car in? I think pretty much at the end of this first complete lap. Me too. And this looks like we're gearing up here. Sebastian Vettel can control the pace now. The safety car's well out of the way, so he dictates the pace from this point on. And he's gone early. He's gone early, but Alonso's gone with him. There is no overtaking until they get to the first safety car line, which is there. And that is why Alonso fancied a bit of a look. And Vettel's gone too deep into the corner. Alonso's right behind him still. So they could overtake into that final corner. And Vettel knew that, but so did Alonso. Alonso goes to the right. Vettel has the turning point to the corner, though. And behind him, we've got a McLaren right up alongside. And he's touched. Webber is round. Mark Webber, and that's Lewis Hamilton. So Mark Webber keeps the engine running. He'll fall almost to the back of the field. And it was Hamilton getting right up the inside of him. He's always in the wars, is Lewis. And that won't go down very well. So this is on board, then, with Lewis. He's now behind the Mercedes of, we think, Rosberg. I think that's Rosberg in front of him. It's Michael Schumacher. Yeah, it's Schumacher then through. So Hamilton's gone deep. Yeah, Button's gone too deep into the corner. McLaren's a line of stern. And Schumacher drives completely around the outside. So now Rosberg is in front of Michael Schumacher. And now the McLarens and Lewis as well as through past Button and fancies a look at the back of Rosberg. They're struggling so much for grip. They're all over the show. Vettel nearly outbrakes him. And there, then, is the contact behind between Hamilton and Webber. Will there be any stewards' inquiry on that one? And this is a replay, then, from on board with Lewis Hamilton. So Mark Webber... Mark Webber, he gave him space. You're absolutely right. He gave him space, and then Lewis just sort of understared into him, didn't he? Rosberg looking more comfortable. Now they've dropped the McLarens as they are now squabbling with each other. Kobayashi just behind them. Heidfeld, nine. Maldonado, ten. Pulder-Ress has dropped down to 13th somewhere. And we're watching Mark Webber... No, that's Sebastian Vettel. He's missed the chicane. So Vettel, then... That's down to eight and nine. He went straight over the grass. He picked a place where there's run-off, so that was fortunate. And Webber and Hamilton under investigation for that first corner. Well, I think in that case, there's no question if you see... Oh, no, the McLarens touch! That is... Well, Lewis Hamilton obviously with suspension damage, puncture. I'd be surprised if he makes it round to back into the pits. But the problem in those conditions is Jenson Button can't see in his mirrors. There's so much spray coming off the front axle that any visibility you have is just cancelled. Well, it's the suspension broken, isn't it? Oh, no, it's just the wheel rim, isn't it, more like? It looks like he went against the pit wall. Let's hear what Jenson thought. What is he doing? So Lewis comes off the last chicane much, much faster. Jenson's making his way on what is the normal line. And it was the merest of touch, wasn't it? Safety car out. Safety car is out. I would imagine because of the debris on the pit straight, would you say? This is difficult times for McLaren. It's hard enough out there without running into your teammate. You had that a couple of times at McLaren, didn't you, Ewan Mika? It is the one thing you'll want to avoid at all costs, is crashing your teammate. Unfortunately, I took Mika out in Austria when he was in pole position. A drive-through penalty for Jenson Button, who's just in front of Paul di Resta. So Button's really made some gains in this lap, but he's got a drive-through penalty for this safety car speed limit issue. Along to Ann Rosberg pit for intermediate tyres. We're expecting to go on that beautiful Ferrari. And there you have it. You can still see a little bit of rain in the foreground. Button can't find his way past the traffic. Well, Petrov started off in ice racing and ladder racing, I believe, in Russia. So he'll certainly know how to handle these conditions. But Jenson Button gets a much better drive off Turn 7. And that is a fairly easy pass as he breaks down under the bridge into Turn 8. So look how hard it's raining, David. It is now, yeah. Surely Jenson's going to start struggling now. You've got heavy spray coming off and some aquaplaning there. The intermediate. Looking at this, I don't know how much heavier the rain's going to get. What do you think about the tyres? So Inters are now a liability. Jenson will be lucky to get back to the pits. He'll have to come in for wet tyres, surely. We've got a safety car out. So safety car is deployed. I haven't seen any incidents at the moment. I think... Fernando Alonso pitting onto the safety car. So he's first to blink and... He'll come back to wet, presumably. Yeah, indeed he will. But this is working out pretty well for Sebastian Vettel. Vettel's bolted. He's going for it. He doesn't want Kobayashi anywhere near him as they arrive at the first safety car line. Massa's closer to Kobayashi. Spray not too bad. Petrov on the right-hand side of the track for Renault. And he's fighting off Paul di Resta, who's down the outside. So Massa's so close to Kobayashi. What are they going to do when they get down to Turn 1? Will Felipe Massa have a chance to take back that position? He's got the inside, but Kobayashi has got a better line. And he brakes later, too. He just gauges his braking. And they're going to be so close in the 2. Great driving from Kobayashi. Sensible for Massa in getting out of it. Mark Webber, you see there, in 7th place. And Schumacher's come in also, then. Hasan Azaz-Sutil, presumably for intermediate tyres. We've got a line of them. Glock, Barrichello, Buemi, all trying to take advantage of this situation. There they all go, scampering out of the pit lane that feeds into the outside of Turn 2. Very unusually here at this racetrack. Oh, and we've got the Force India there across the grass, down at Turn 3. It was Sutil, Jenson Buttons, right behind him. Look at this for a traffic jam. Michael Schumacher in there as well. Yeah, coming back with his intermediate tyres. He's pitted, of course. So he's got a bit of traffic in front of him. He's got an HRT. There's that Karthikeyan. He'll be well past him in the braking area. Down into Turn 8. And there's Jenson Button as well. Look at all that slow traffic he's going to make his way through. Who's got his next in his sights? Is that Sutil? Yeah, we've got a long line of cars. Sutil then coming around the outside of the Lotus of Jarno. Truly Jenson Button watching brief. And Sutil goes in too deep. Button comes up the inside, makes the move, sticks. Sutil luckily saw him coming, and another stream of cars in the pits. Yeah, indeed. We've got both the Ferraris in. They're going to have to queue up. Do I see that correctly? We've got Massa is in, and Alonso as well. Alonso's going to have to queue up behind. He's just out of camera shot. Look at that. He's going to lose even more time. Well spotted then, and nearly an unsafe release, surely, from Ferrari. So a bit of confusion. The Ferrari mechanic's looking down the pit lane, like, what are you doing in here as well? But Massa then out, still behind Kobayashi. Heidfeld right behind them too. It's all kicking off out there as the track begins to dry. Ted was down there. And that was an absolute nightmare. The Ferrari boys did the best they could, but Fernando Alonso lost loads of places there, including Soneko Rosberg. So he'll have to regain those places out on track. But with the Virgin, that's a case of them not knowing the rules. When you start a race under the safety car or restart a race, you have to have the full wet tyres on. Thank you for that, Ted. And we got a Ferrari off. It's Fernando Alonso's beats the Ferrari. And where is that? Is that the... That's his second chicane. Yeah. It's in Turn 3, I think. And Button's got a puncture. I wonder then if Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso got together somewhere. Now, let's have a look at this. So, yes, it was Button up the inside of Alonso. Alonso didn't want to yield. And contact. That's Jenson's second contact of the afternoon. The McLaren of Button, who is in the pits. So it's four pit stops and a drive-through for Button. Barrichello is also out on the super soft dry tyre, but the guinea pig was Adrian Sutil. He came in first and is tentative out there. And now, Durest has just gone out on him because he's serving his drive-through. Well, I can tell you, Sutil's times are not good. He's got a left rear puncture, right rear puncture. This is Massa side by side with Kobayashi for second place. And Michael Schumacher, it looks like he's gone past a pair of them. So lots of action then, and an absolutely wild oversteer there. So Schumacher has passed Massa and Kobayashi and surely emerges in second place in the Grand Prix now. This is where it all went wrong for Kobayashi. He's gone wide in Turn 8. Contact there with Massa. Michael Schumacher sneaks up the inside while they're busy watching each other and takes second place in the Grand Prix. That then is Button, who presumably has just pitted for slicks. Indeed he has. That is Alguersuare Maldonado. And we've got Glock in the pit as well. That's Jenson's sixth trip through the pits today. Once for a penalty and five times to change his tyres. Schumacher on a charge. He pitted from second place. Petrov hasn't pitted. He's up in third at the moment. And Webber absolutely flying. Michael getting... And we've got a damaged nose front wing there on Felipe Massa as Mark Webber goes through and is setting fastest sector after fastest sector. Cars off all over the place as they're trying to find grip on their tyres. Here we are on the exit of Turn 7. And he gets out on the water. And of course on the slick tyres, he's just aquaplaning. And that was him trying to get past an HRT. And the race leader pits then for a fresh set of super soft tyres. They do not have to use both compounds in this race now because it's been a wet race. That regulation falls away, so they can keep running the soft tyre till the end of the Grand Prix if we ever get to the end of this Grand Prix. Button's absolutely flying out there in seventh place. Let me just remind you, you can see at the bottom of your screen as the kerbs are working nicely out there. Still working for Webber who did not have that facility in qualifying. Webber with his rear wing wide open comes to the inside for the final chicane. Thinks better of it. Ducks back. Will he have to go across the run-off? He does indeed. It'd be so slow on the exit across the wet track. So Mark Webber then just getting a little bit too hot. Schumacher's closed the gap to Vettel by two seconds on that lap. Vettel, extremely cautious on his first flying lap. The problem is now the damp patch is offline, David. Yeah, getting offline, as we've seen from Felipe Massa. Oh, look, he's going to touch him. It's Tonkat. He's broken his front wing. This is... It's like none of these guys know where their front wing is. Oh, right. This is a surprise. Yeah, thankfully there's plenty of run-off down there. And he parks it. That's a scary thing when you run over your own front wing because you've got no brakes, no front wing, all at the same time. And he's legged it again off the hairpin, which he likes to do. He's given the safety car enough of a margin. He wants to get down to that safety car line without Michael Schumacher. DRS is not enabled at this time. Schumacher down the outside there. And yellow flags waving for some reason, presumably because the safety car was still in range. But green flags now, and away they go. And we wait two laps, then, for the DRS to be enabled after a safety car restart. Mark's now shown his colours. He knows that he can get down the outside. But is he in the activation point? Let's see. We can see the white line there on the screen. And his wing pops open, and presumably Jenson Button's as well. Yeah, watch the closing speeds. Those two in the slipstream. And, well, we saw Michael, was it last year, where he just knocked the front wing? And Mark Webber misses the corner again. Oh, he's nearly lost it. Webber, Nelusa, and Button sails past him, somehow finding enough grip. So Mark Webber pushing his luck. Vettel leads Schumacher by 3.8 from now Jenson Button. And now it's Jenson chasing down Michael Schumacher, and he will get the advantage of the DRS rear wing, but not yet. But Jenson feeling particularly punchy by the looks of it. If he's within one second as he exits this corner across that line now, he gets the advantage of the rear wing. And it will pop open when they go over this next line. And surely he's got a great chance of coasting past. Schumacher looking in his mirror. Button goes the long way round. Is he ahead of him? Yes, he is. Button up into second place. This race is not over for the win, and it's certainly not over for the last step on the podium. Vettel watching in the mirror, the rear wing closed. But we're wondering if there's any in the background. Schumacher defending hard against Webber. Schumacher defending incredibly hard. And Webber's through. Webber's through. Can he keep it on the road this time? He does indeed. Schumacher drops down to fourth place. And I think he came across the run-off area. So Schumacher fourth, Webber third. Button, a new fastest lap of the race, 1.17.5. The gap down to 1.3, crucially just outside the one-second gap that will give him the rear wing activation. There's three minutes to go and three laps. So are we going to run out of time before we've run out of laps? Schumacher there once again. Particularly did go across the escape road, actually, but he does not have to yield anything. It's all going to be on the last lap then. It needs to be a very tidy lap. We got a yellow flag out there, which will stop overtaking in that corner. But it's not really an overtaking opportunity anyway. So watch the gap as they go over the line. Vettel leads as he goes into the final lap by 0.9 of a second. Button at 1.16.9, the new fastest lap of the race. Jenson Button driving for his life, driving for the victory. Has Vettel got what it takes to hold him off? I think Vettel's got ways. Yeah, he's got ways. He turned in too late. He got the tires. Button leads the Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel turned in with his tires just touching the waters. The final lap of the Grand Prix. And Jenson Button, after an awful afternoon with so many things going wrong for him, leads this amazing Canadian Grand Prix. We see Vettel finally cracking. He's made a mistake. He is still going to finish second. That means he's never been outside the top two this year. But Sebastian Vettel finally shows he's human because of the pressure that this man, Jenson Button, put on him. And all sorts going off in the final chicane here. But they're out of Button's way. Lots of traffic fighting it. Jenson Button into the pit straight. He wins a brilliant race. It's a sensational drive for Button. What a victory. And Vettel limps home in second place. He'll be angry with himself. It's unlike him. And Webber, then, will be the second Red Bull on the podium. Only just ahead of Michael Schumacher. Look at that. Schumacher, sadly, I have to say, does not get on the podium, but still a brilliant fourth. And we've got Masa and Kobayashi still fighting, then, over sixth and seventh places. He'll get the run off the corner, but he's got his DRS. Has he got enough with Kers? Is he going to do it? He does, indeed, by the looks of it. He got over there just in front of Kobayashi. Makes up sixth place. Yeah, well spotted, David. Masa, then, takes sixth, literally. Doesn't make the next corner. Surely one of the finest races of his life and the best Grand Prix of his spectacular career. A well-earned drink of the winner's champagne. I really don't know what to say. It's been a very emotional three hours, however long it's been since the start. Obviously, the incident with Lewis, I couldn't see anything when he was alongside me. I couldn't see anything in my mirrors. So it was one of those things, and I've apologised to him. And then on, it was really a fight. I got to drive through for speeding behind the safety car. And then I had to fight my way through about three times. Eventually, on the last lap, I was chasing down Seb. He ran a little bit wide onto the wet part of the circuit, and I was able to take the opportunity and take the win. But for me, yeah, a fantastic race. And I think even if I hadn't won today, I would have enjoyed this race immensely. But yeah, amazing win and possibly my best.