An admission of guilt first. I did not watch this race live, which now I feel sad for right now. I went to bed after an hour of the red-flag due to very heavy rain. I was so convinced that no matter what happens Vettel is going to come out as the race winner (since Lewis had crashed out of the race just before, because of which the safety car was deployed). Then the first thing I did as soon as I got up in the morning was to check/confirm what I had thought. To my surprise (we can also use the word ‘shock‘ here), I saw the update in the F1 site as, “Button takes last-gasp win in Canadian epic“. What!!!!!!!!!!! Button!!!!!!! How did that happen?? These were the thoughts going through my mind. After going through few other pages, I found out how much action I had missed. Still, I wanted to know how Button emerged as the winner despite all odds. During the process of understanding that, I wanted to compare the performances of the two drivers and fathom what really happened. So, here are a very few details of that comparison.
Choice of Tyres:
We all know, without any doubt that Button is good, infact very-very-good, in his call for the choice of tyres. And we have already seen the proof last year. In the whole drama that unfolded in the Canadian GP, when most drivers did three stops to change from wet to intermediate to super-soft as the racing conditions improved in the disjointed race, Button was forced to pit five times and he still emerged the winner!!
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Button Vs Vettel – Canadian GP F1 2011 – Comparison of Tyre Choices
As you can see in the aforementioned graph, Button’s tyre choice was really exceptional. Be it deciding to switch to Intermediate on 9th lap, when everyone was still going in Wet. Seeing Button’s performance in Intermediate, Alonso too made that call, but it was a little late for him to make use of that strategy. Apart from these many pit-stops, Button also served a drive-through penalty for Over-Speed behind the Original Safety Car. So, on the whole, Button entered the pits 6 times, when compared to that of Vettel’s which was just 3 times!
Q: Aside from your perfect use of KERS and DRS, you seemed to be the best man at understanding the tyres too…JB: Yes, I guess I understood the tyres today very well. But also our car understood the tyres well – and my engineers. I think the calls that we made were very good. I was really able to push the dry tyres at the end of the race. I was so on the edge when I was chasing down Vettel. Indeed I couldn’t get any more out of the car. But it was enough!
Courtesy: Formula1.com
In contrast to Button, Vettel’s tyre choices were the ideal ones, for any race leader to hold the lead on every stint. Rather than gambling with the tyre choices, he went for what was the usual tyre choice for any driver at that point of the race.
Lap Position:
Next comes the very interesting part of the whole comparison between these two: Lap Position. This gives a overview of hows the race has unfolded. We know what Vettel’s position was, at every lap, which is obviously #1, with the exception being when he came for pits for the first time (when Massa led the field for one lap before he himself dived into pit) and the most important of all, the final lap. What’s more interesting is the lap positions of Button throughout the race.
Button Vs Vettel – Canadian GP F1 2011 – Comparison of Lap Positions
Quite literally, Button was present at every position on the grid there possibly was. At one point of the race, he was the last driver in the whole field, trying to catch the HRTs. He then overtook almost every driver in the race, some even twice, and sometimes two cars in a single overtaking move (something we saw from Schumacher as well). With all these ups and downs, I still cannot believe how he managed to finish the race in the Position 1.
Gap from the Race Leader:
The lap positions would have had more impact had the race been in dry conditions. What gives the real insight of what happened is, how far Button was from the race leader, i.e. SebastianVettel (who led the race for almost all the laps). Due to the amount of drama that ensued in the race, how the entire field was separated did matter much.
Button Vs Vettel – Canadian GP F1 2011 – Comparison of Gap from the Race Leader
Though Button was lot behind in terms of race position, interms of the gap from Vettel, he was within reach most of the time. Occasional incidents led Button to see a gap of over 100 seconds from Vettel at one point of time (37th lap to be more precise). But few other incidents saw him a lot closer to the race leader, just by the arrival of the safety car on the race track. And towards the end, the gap was decreasing continuously and once Button switched to the Super-Soft, he took charge of the battle for the podium.
Lap Times:
This is one of the interesting views of the race. A comparison of the lap times.
Button Vs Vettel – Canadian GP F1 2011 – Comparison of Lap Times in each lap
I can see two interesting things from this graph. First one being, both the drivers have perfectly matched lap timings in all the laps. Interestingly, Vettel had a cleaner race track in-front of him all through the race whereas Button had the water sprayed on his visor, almost all the times. Since he was in the middle of a huge pack of cars, most of his times were not noticed at all. The second aspect which I think is very interesting thing in this comparison is, with matching lap times, how Button manged to overcome such a huge gap between him and Vettel. The biggest advantage in favour of Button was undoubtedly the Safety Car!
Deserved Win
After 5 pit stops, two “racing-incidents” (almost race-ending collisions), one drive-through penalty, and all these on a terrific track and racing conditions, Button won the epic race that was the 2011 Canadian GP! Yet this post would not be complete without mentioning Vettel’s very good driving. Vettel did everything right, expect for that one wrong slide in the final lap. He maintained control of the race throughout despite a plethora of unexpected incidents.
Jenson Button: It is truly fantastic. During races, under such difficult conditions, it is essential to keep on fighting because you never know what can happen. Obviously I’ve made some unscheduled pit stops with some broken parts on my car but that didn’t hamper me from securing victory on the last lap. It is a special day indeed. It has been quite a long time since my last win, but even if I hadn’t won the race I would be very happy because I enjoyed it so much fighting my way through. When you put one over someone with a move it means a lot. The car was great today, especially in the dry conditions. An amazing victory and I don’t think I could have done anything better. It feels great – especially after Monaco where we thought we would do better. Okay Sebastian made a mistake, but I think we deserved it to win.
Button wins!!!
As Button has mentioned, the most important thing in the race is just to keep fighting till the end withpatience (probably that’s a word of advise for Lewis from Button). I believe I had done justice in understanding how Button emerged victorious in a drama filled Canadian GP. I will finish with quotes from the winner.
Sincere thanks to Formula1.com, f1fanatic.co.uk
