The clock stopped at four hours, four minutes, and 39 seconds. The chequered flag for the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix fell, setting the record for the longest F1 race in history.
Jenson Button crossed the line in first place, and while it may have seemed par for the course for the wet weather maestro, how he got there was a remarkable F1 tale.
Rain had hit the track in the minutes before the race and began to shower the track, with concerns over the impact it could have on spray and standing water. After five laps under Safety Car, the drivers were released under green flag conditions.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel led the way from pole with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. Almost immediately into Turn 1, Lewis Hamilton made a move on Mark Webber and the pair made contact, sending the Australian into a spin.
Hamilton was forced onto the escape road and dropped behind several cars, including Button, but he would re-pass him later in the lap as he relished the conditions.
After attempting a move on Michael Schumacher, the Briton would once again fall behind Button. As the two teammates approached the start/finish straight, Hamilton took to the inside line and attempted a pass.
The lack of visibility meant Button was unsighted and the pair collided, sending Hamilton into the barrier with a broken rear wheel. The Safety Car was brought out as Hamilton parked up, while Button ditched his wet tyres and switched to Intermediates.
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Button’s early efforts to get the jump on everyone were hampered by a drive-thru penalty for speeding behind the Safety Car, sending him all the way back to 15th.
As the rain increased, the race was red-flagged and everyone lined up on the grid in anticipation of clear skies. Two hours would pass before any sign of a restart, with racing resuming under Safety Car on the full wet tyres.
Ferrari elected to double-stack their drivers for Intermediate tyres, with Alonso emerging out behind Button. The pair would later collide at Turn 3, forcing Alonso out and causing a puncture for Button. After his second drive through to the pits, Button restarted on Intermediate tyres and made swift work.
Working his way from last, Button had managed to get into the top ten places and made the gamble to slick tyres for what was his sixth pass through the pits.
The next Safety Car would come out for a collision between Nick Heidfeld and Kamui Kobayashi, which caused several pieces of carbon fibre to get scattered across the track. At the restart, Button was running in fourth place and didn’t waste time.
Capitalising on a mistake by Webber at the final corner, he would overtake him for third and would later pull off the same move on Schumacher to relegate him. With five laps to go, he faced a 3.1 second deficit to leader Vettel.
Jenson Button pulls off unlikely victory with sensational last-lap pass on Sebastian Vettel
Vettel was in control of the race but Button was on a charge, taking seconds out of the Red Bull driver as he struggled to generate tyre temperature.
Button would go on to cut Vettel’s lead to just 0.9 seconds on the final lap, and as the pair exited the Turn 3 and 4 chicane, you could hear them both on the throttle.
Vettel caught a damp patch on entry to Turn 5, which caused his Red Bull to glide across the tarmac and allowed Button to sweep through for the lead. It was the first moment Vettel had cracked under pressure all year, and it was at the most critical point of the race.
Button would take the lead for the last half of the lap and finished first, and with it securing one of the most iconic victories in F1 history.
“You’ve got to give primary credit to Jenson. He went out and did the job in a car that was okay,” said then-McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh.
“But you’ve got to give him the credit for that, he found that time, he was driving 2 – 4 seconds quicker than anyone else, he put the pressure on Sebastian, who made a mistake. And that’s what happens when you put the pressure on. It was an incredible job by Jenson.”
Button’s six visits to the pit lane throughout the race were a new record for the winner of an F1 race, while a record was set for the most Safety Car appearances (six), longest race, and the lowest average speed (46mph).