Rain, rain and more rain!! I am sure you viewers were getting as annoyed as I was when trying to watch the Canadian F1 race on Sunday. Montreal played host to the F1 this weekend and I think it is an awesome track. "It's an island in the middle of a giant river with a Volcano as its heart."
My qualifying predictions were horribly wrong this weekend. I really thought that Vettel would be knocked off his insane run of pole positions but yet again, he proved me wrong and put in a flyer of a lap to pip Alonso for P1. Massa followed his team mate and then the other Red Bull of Mark Webber in P4.
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| Lewis limps and retires after colliding with Button |
A Safety Car infused race day did spoil the race for me a bit but I was so glad that the racing finally got underway again. Let's got onto the race. It began under the safety car and only proper racing started on the 5th lap where Vettel carefully planned his acceleration point and managed to get away from the 2 Ferrari's breathing down his neck. Plenty standing water on the track made the first few laps very exciting and Mr Lewis Hamilton back to his tricks of bumper cars shone through again. First he bumped into Webber causing him to spin out and lose a few places. He then got 'pushed' off the track by Schumacher but he managed to recover and rejoin the race. His third incident was with his own teammate where he was trying to pass up the inside and Button either did not see him or was defending his line. Contact was made which wrecked Lewis' car and he was then forced to retire from the GP. Very impatient and irrational driving from Hamilton again.
The safety car was deployed again and Button went straight in for fresh rubber. The SC (safety car) lead for a further 13 laps where the order of the field was, Vettel still in the lead, followed by Alonso, Massa, Rosberg and Schumacher..
Low and behold the SC was brought out again! This time for unsafe racing conditions after a number of drivers complained about the visibility and the rain was hammering down. Race officials brought the red flag out and halted all the action in Montreal.
A long hour and a half wait and the rain started to let up and the race got underway again behind the safety car. Lap 35 and the loud pedals were hammered again. Massa instantly flew up and attempted a move on Kobayashi which proved to be a lekker battle throughout the whole rate. A couple of laps on and the action started, Alonso collided with Button and ended his race. The Ferrari was done. Button just managed to get back to pits to fix his puncture. Some individual brilliance from Michael Schumacher brought me back to the old days when he was unstoppable and managed to work his way up to 2nd place.
By lap 55, Vettel was still in the lead, with his longtime mentor Schumacher in second and Webber in third. Kobayashi followed in fourth ahead of Button, Heidfeld, Petrov, Barrichello, Alguersuari and Rosberg to tenth. Lap 56 and Heidfeld hit back of Kobayashi when entering the hairpin. This collision broke his front wing which flew off on the back straight and sending his car into the run-off, race over for Heidfeld. SC deployed and recalled 5 laps later, 9 laps to go. With Vettel in the lead on the last lap of the race, the pressure got too much for him and he finally made a very rare error when he skidded sideways on a wet patch. This was the ultimate opportunity for Button in 2nd and he did not hesitate. He shot past Vettel for his first win of the 2011 season and Webber held on for 3rd. Incident packed F1 yet again. I just love this sport!
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| 1st win for Button of the 2011 Season |
And so with the Canadian GP is finally done, it leaves Vettel still up front with 161 points but shoots Button into second place with 101. Webber remains third with 94 and Hamilton 4th with 85. See you in Valencia in 2 weeks... Cannot wait!
