It was 12 years ago, a completely crazy Canadian Grand Prix

At the dawn of the 2011 season, Sebastian Vettel arrives in Australia as the world champion and displays the number 1 on his car. Following his victory in Abu Dhabi, Vettel wins 5 out of the first 6 races and a new title seems inevitable for the German.

Arriving in Canada for the 7th race of this year 2011, Vettel seems well positioned to win once again. On Saturday in dry conditions, he achieves the pole position ahead of Fernando Alonso and far ahead of the future winner of this Grand Prix, Jenson Button (7th on the grid).

Due to the rain, the race starts behind the safety car. On the 4th lap, the safety car pulls away, and the race is underway. Sebastian Vettel maintains his position, while Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber collide at the first corner. The Australian defends his position against the British driver too aggressively.

Disaster at McLaren

During the 8th lap, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button engage in a battle that will end very badly for both teammates. In the pit straight, Lewis tries to overtake Button on the left, who didn’t see him. Hamilton retires while Button goes to his pit and changes to intermediate tires. Following the collision, the safety car is deployed once again to remove the car of the 2008 world champion.

So in intermediate tires, Button’s nightmare start to the race doesn’t seem to be going his way. The 2009 champion has to perform a drive-through (mandatory passage through the pits, without stopping but respecting the speed limit) for driving too fast under safety car conditions. On the 13th lap, the race resumes; only Button and Liuzzi have fitted intermediate tires. After his penalty, Button is in 14th place, but he has a much better pace than the drivers on wet tires.

The rain: it comes and goes

6 laps after the second intervention of the safety car, it comes out again due to the heavy downpours that are flooding the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. On lap 25, the yellow flags turn into red flags, and the race is suspended for 2 hours and 5 minutes.

Once again, there was no standing start for the race restart, the drivers will complete about ten laps before resuming the race on the 35th lap and Vettel is still leading ahead of Kobayashi and Massa. Behind them, there is a fierce battle between Button and Alonso, the two drivers collide between turns 3 and 4. The Ferrari driver is stuck on the kerb and cannot get going again. The safety car is deployed for the 5th time to remove Alonso’s car. The race resumes 5 laps later. Gradually, the track dries out to the point where several drivers decide to switch to slick tires, including Jenson Button, who makes his 6th pit stop of the race.

A final safety car and a race ending full of twists and turns

On the 57th lap, the safety car is back on track to allow for the debris from the collision between Nick Heidfeld and Kamui Kobayashi to be cleared. The race resumes for good with a seemingly untouchable Vettel. His teammate is determined to offer a double win to the Austrian team. He attempts to overtake the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher but fails, allowing Jenson Button to take third place.

On the 65th lap, Schumacher is overtaken by a Button who is showing a frantic pace and is chasing after the Red Bull world champion. The gap is shrinking rapidly. With 1 lap to go, Button is less than a second behind Vettel.

During the final lap, unexpectedly, it’s the German who makes a mistake at turn 6, Button overtakes him and crosses the finish line in first place to win his 10th race in F1, surely the most beautiful one.

This 2011 Canadian Grand Prix will have broken records, it is the longest race in the history of F1. In total, the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix lasted 4 hours 4 minutes (including 2 hours and 5 minutes of interruption).