Sebastian Vettel made exactly one mistake in 69 laps of the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix. It came on the final lap, at the final chicane, with Jenson Button less than a second behind him. Vettel locked the inside front tyre, ran wide over the kerb, and opened a gap on the exit. Button did not need an invitation.
The McLaren dived down the inside into the braking zone for the next corner. By the time the two cars accelerated out of the final turn, Button was ahead. He crossed the line to win a race that had started four hours and four minutes earlier — the longest in Formula 1 history — and that he had been running dead last in as recently as lap 37.
The rain that would not stop
Montreal in June can be wet. The 2011 Canadian Grand Prix was something else entirely. The rain began before the start and intensified through the opening laps until the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was partially underwater. The Safety Car was deployed on lap 5, then again on lap 13, then again on lap 20. The race was red-flagged on lap 25 and would not restart for over two hours.
During the delay, the teams sat in the garages, the fans sat in the grandstands, and the television audience around the world waited. No one knew whether the race would resume. No one imagined what would happen when it did.
Button's catalogue of disasters
When the race restarted, Button's afternoon went from bad to catastrophic. On lap 37, he collided with teammate Lewis Hamilton at the exit of the pit lane, sending Hamilton into retirement. The stewards investigated and handed Button a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable collision.
That penalty dropped Button to 21st and last — over a minute behind the leader. He was a lap down on Vettel. By any reasonable assessment, his race was over.
Then the track started to dry. Button pitted for intermediates, then for slicks. Each tyre change unlocked pace that others could not match. He began passing cars — not with DRS-assisted straights, but with braking-zone moves into the hairpin and bold commits around the Wall of Champions.
The charge through the field
Button passed both Renaults. He passed both Force Indias. He passed Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber around the outside of turn two — a move that required absolute commitment because the outside line at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve offers zero margin for error.
By lap 56, he was in the points. By lap 60, he was in the top five. By lap 65, he was second, behind only Vettel.
The mathematics were still against him. Vettel had led from the start, controlled the pace through every restart, and looked untouchable. But Button was closing. The gap fell from eight seconds to five, then to three, then to under two.
The final lap
Vettel's error at the final chicane was not a dramatic lock-up that sent him into the wall. It was a fraction too much speed on entry, a slight loss of the rear, and enough of a moment to open the door. Button, who had spent the last 30 laps driving at the absolute limit of what the car and the conditions would allow, was close enough to exploit it.
The overtake itself was clinical. Button braked later, hit the apex, and was ahead before Vettel could recover. In the final hundred metres to the chequered flag, the McLaren was ahead of the Red Bull for the first time all day.
Why it endures
Canada 2011 endures because it compresses an entire season's worth of narrative into a single afternoon. Button hit his teammate, received a penalty, went a lap down, and still won. The race had six Safety Car periods, a two-hour red flag, and a lead change on the final lap. No scriptwriter would dare propose it.
More than the drama, the race endures because of what it revealed about Button as a driver. In dry conditions, he was often criticized for lacking the raw aggression of Hamilton or Alonso. In the wet, on the edge, with nothing to lose, he was untouchable. His tyre management was perfect. His judgement of grip was extraordinary. And his patience — the willingness to wait for conditions to come to him rather than forcing the issue — was the quality that ultimately won the race.
What to watch for at future wet races in Montreal
- The transition from intermediates to slicks — the circuit dries unevenly, and the driver who times the switch gains seconds per lap
- The Wall of Champions — it claims at least one victim every year, especially in wet conditions
- The hairpin as the primary overtaking point — heavy braking into a tight corner rewards precision over pure straight-line speed
- Teammate collisions at the pit exit — the 2011 Button-Hamilton incident was not the first and will not be the last
- The Safety Car's outsized impact — with lap times over 90 seconds in the wet, every neutralization resets the field