2011 Formula 1 : Button wins the wet Canadian Grand Prix

2011 F1 - Canadian Grand Prix winner : Jenson Button - McLaren Mercedes

MONTREAL, Canada : June 12, 2011 - Jenson Button survived a crash, a drive-through penalty and six pit stops to win a chaotic and wet Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal on Sunday.

The 2009 world champion, who was in last place with 30 laps to go, had the race of his life as he piled relentless pressure on every driver ahead of him, including forcing an error from race leader Sebastian Vettel on the very last lap that saw him take the lead half a lap from the flag.

Vettel led the race from the start but succumbed to Button's attack with a rare error, running wide and letting the McLaren through. Mark Webber put the second Red Bull onto the podium with a fine third place after a sensational dice with Michael Schumacher who finished fourth. Fifth was Vitaly Petrov (Renault) followed by Felipe Massa (Ferrari).

Button moved up to second behind Vettel in the championship, replacing his team mate Lewis Hamilton who crashed out.

As a result of the wet track, the race got under way behind the safety car with all the cars on full wet tyres. After circuiting slowly for three laps, the safety car withdrew and the cars went racing.

As the pack arrived in the first corner, with Vettel leading from Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Massa, Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) got up the inside of Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault), but the Australian closed the door too late and the two touched. Webber spun but continued, while Hamilton lost a couple of places.

Hamilton was soon up behind Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) and challenging for fifth place. Hamilton tried to get past on the outside of the hairpin as the German squeezed him out onto the grass and held onto the place.

On lap 8, Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) was slow coming out of the final chicane into the main straight and this allowed Hamilton to catch up and start overtaking up the inside. Button was unsighted and moved left, squeezing Hamilton into the pit wall. There was contact between the two cars, with Hamilton losing the front wing and breaking his left rear suspension as a result of his brush against the pit wall.

The safety car was deployed while Hamilton's stranded McLaren was retrieved, and Button took the opportunity to pit to check his car for damage. He also made a strategic decision to change to intermediate tyres and he rejoined in 12th place.

On lap 10, behind the safety car, the leading positions were Vettel, Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Schumacher, Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber-Ferrari), Nick Heidfeld (Renault), Vitaly Petrov (Renault), Webber and Paul di Resta (Force India-Mercedes).

The safety car withdrew on lap 12 and Schumacher got the jump on Rosberg, taking fourth place from his team mate.

On the next lap, Vettel set a 1'34.636.

Button was then given a drive-through penalty for speeding during the safety car period and after taking it he dropped to 15th.

With a clear vision and an empty track ahead, Vettel quickly opened up a four-second lead over Alonso with Massa a further second behind.

Button's intermediates were working well for him and he set fastest times in the first and second sectors to lap two seconds faster than leader Vettel. He passed Sébastien Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari), Pedro de la Rosa (Sauber) and Pastor Maldonado (Williams-Cosworth) to take 11th place 1.5 sec behind Di Resta.

Alonso and Rosberg both pitted for inters after their teams took note of Button's pace. Schumacher did the same on the next lap.

The rain began to fall heavily at the top end of the circuit around the hairpin and the cars were battling for traction. Visibility deteriorated and the safety car was deployed for the third time.

Button pitted behind the safety car and swopped back to full wets. Vettel, who was still on wets, pitted for another set, as did Webber. The Australian was having problems downshifting and his pit crew also changed his steering wheel to try and correct the problem.

Even circuiting slowly behind the safety car, Vettel came over the radio to say: "The track from Turn 9 to Turn 13 is undriveable - undriveable!"

Rain continued to fall heavily over the full length of the 4km circuit and showed no sign of stopping soon.

"At the hairpin you can't see anything at all," commented Button.

On lap 24, the red flag was waved and the race was suspended.

After two hours of waiting, the rain finally held off long enough for the decision to be made by officials to go racing again, with just 27 of the 70 laps completed, and three hours after the race began.

Race positions at this stage were Vettel, Kobayashi, Massa, Heidfeld, Petrov, Di Resta, Webber, Alonso, De la Rosa and Button.

Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus-Renault) appeared to have a slipping clutch and made his way back to his pit while the rest of the cars continued to circulate behind the safety car. The Finn made it back to the garage, but his team retired the car.

On lap 34 the safety car finally withdrew and the race was under way again.

As they came past the pits for the first time in anger, Massa got alongside second-placed Kobayashi, but the Japanese would have nothing of it and closed the door on the Brazilian who had to back off.

Drivers streamed into the pits to swop to intermediate tyres, including Button who had made them work so well for him earlier.

Both Ferraris pitted for new tyres and Alonso lost lots of places having to wait behind Massa to be serviced. He rejoined the race, but only for a minute before he was out of the race. Button got well up the inside of Alonso but the Spaniard turned in anyway. There was contact between the two cars with the Ferrari beached on the side of the track and Button pitting with a puncture - his fifth stop of the day. He rejoined in 21st and last place.

Fifth-placed F1 rookie Di Resta tried to get past the vastly more experienced Nick Heidfeld but broke his front wing after contact with the back of the German's car. He pitted at the end of the next lap for a new front wing.

Vettel had a clear track and no spray ahead of him and set a new fastest lap of 1'29.874. Schumacher responded with a 1'29.215.

Kobayashi was continuing to hold off third-placed Massa and this was allowing Vettel to open up a five-second lead.

Schumacher set a new fastest lap of 1'27.575 but then went off the track on the next lap as Button got past Buemi into 12th.

Di Resta was given a drive-through penalty for his collision with Heidfeld.

On lap 50, Webber pitted for new tyres, the first to opt for the super-soft dry slick tyre as the track showed an ever-increasing dry line. Meanwhile Schumacher got past both Massa and Kobayashi to go second.

Button had fought up from last to tenth, but then made yet another stop, this time for slicks. Schumacher and Massa also pitted for the dry tyres.

Webber set the new fastest lap - 1'24.626 - as he closed on seventh-placed Heidfeld.

Massa's front wing was awry and he was slowing on his way back to the pits after he aquaplaned on cold slicks and banged into the Armco barriers.

Button next set a 1'22.759 to go to the top of the lap chart as Webber and Schumacher started a great dice for second place.

Fourth-placed Button was easily the fastest man on the track as he ate into the 15-sec gap to race leader Vettel with a 1'20.513.

Heidfeld ran into the back of Kobayashi and retired as Button set another fastest lap of 1'20.221. The safety car was deployed yet again to allow marshals to clear the track of Heidfeld's debris.

Schumacher, Webber and Button were all significantly quicker than race leader Vettel and the safety car now bunched them up and removed Vettel's 13-sec advantage.

At the restart on lap 60, Schumacher tried to get past Vettel, but the younger German successfully defended against the elder, who then himself came under pressure from Webber and Button.

Webber got past Schumacher on the long back straight and then outbraked himself into the chicane, and was forced to take the escape route. He was obliged to give the place back and did well to keep Button from getting past too. On the next lap, Webber made the same mistake, and this time Button jumped him and began his attack on Schumacher. He lined himself up at the hairpin and then used his DRS to good effect to sail past the Mercedes and into second place.

Button set a new fastest lap of 1'17.967 on lap 65 as he sliced into Vettel's' two-second lead, catching him in just one lap, while behind Webber finally got past Schumacher.

Button set a new fastest lap of 1'17.509 as the race clock ticked towards the end of the race.

Vettel responded to Button's attack and began to match his times.

Button set yet another fastest lap on the penultimate tour - a 1'16.956.

But the relentless pressure got to Vettel and he went wide, allowing Button to surge past into the lead.

Race result : 2001 Formula 1 - Canadian Grand Prix

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	70	4:04:39.537	7	25
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	70	+2.7 secs	1	18
3	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	70	+13.8 secs	4	15
4	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	70	+14.2 secs	8	12
5	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	70	+20.3 secs	10	10
6	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	70	+33.2 secs	3	8
7	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	70	+33.2 secs	13	6
8	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	70	+35.9 secs	18	4
9	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	70	+45.1 secs	16	2
10	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	70	+47.0 secs	15	1
11	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	70	+50.4 secs	6
12	17	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari	70	+63.6 secs	17
13	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	69	+1 Lap	21
14	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	69	+1 Lap	24
15	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	69	+1 Lap	22
16	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	69	+1 Lap	19
17	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	69	+1 Lap	23
18	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	67	Accident	11
Ret	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	61	Spun off	12
Ret	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	55	Accident	9
Ret	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	49	Accident	14
Ret	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	36	Accident	2
Ret	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	28	Driveshaft	20
Ret	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	7	Accident	5

2011 Formula 1 : Drivers championship standings

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	161
2	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	101
3	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	94
4	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	85
5	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	69
6	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	32
7	Vitaly Petrov	Russian	Renault	31
8	Nick Heidfeld	German	Renault	29
9	Michael Schumacher	German	Mercedes	26
10	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	26
11	Kamui Kobayashi	Japanese	Sauber-Ferrari	25
12	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	8
13	Sebastien Buemi	Swiss	STR-Ferrari	8
14	Jaime Alguersuari	Spanish	STR-Ferrari	4
15	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Williams-Cosworth	4
16	Sergio Perez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	2
17	Paul di Resta	British	Force India-Mercedes	2
18	Pedro de la Rosa	Spanish	Sauber-Ferrari	0
19	Jarno Trulli	Italian	Lotus-Renault	0
20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italian	HRT-Cosworth	0
21	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Belgian	Virgin-Cosworth	0
22	Heikki Kovalainen	Finnish	Lotus-Renault	0
23	Timo Glock	German	Virgin-Cosworth	0
24	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Williams-Cosworth	0
25	Narain Karthikeyan	Indian	HRT-Cosworth	0

2011 Formula 1 : Team - Manufacturers' Championship Standings

Pos	Team	Points
1	RBR-Renault	255
2	McLaren-Mercedes	186
3	Ferrari	101
4	Renault	60
5	Mercedes	52
6	Sauber-Ferrari	27
7	STR-Ferrari	12
8	Force India-Mercedes	10
9	Williams-Cosworth	4
10	Lotus-Renault	0
11	HRT-Cosworth	0
12	Virgin-Cosworth	0

[Source : F1, McLAREN MERCEDES, Supersport]