Apparently according to Martin Whitmarsh at McClaren there would be a 60% chance of it raining on race day. I don’t think anyone predicted that we would have as much rain as we did on Sunday. You could say it was a complete wash-out; it was raining heavily before they even lined up on the grid leading everyone to be allowed to change to wet tyres for the race. Martin Brundle spoke with the steward before the race and asked them not to start the race under a safety car.
His request was denied by the steward and rightly so, the safety car pulled away with all 24 drivers behind him, Alguersuari starting from the pit lane. The only notified absentee from the race was Perez who after crashing in Monaco decided he was not up for racing this weekend. That decision is highly commended as he gave up his chance to race as he knew he wouldn’t give 100% leaving De la Rosa to be reinstated to the driver’s seat. De La Rosa who famously got sacked by Sauber with 5 races to go last season gladly taking up the opportunity with his old employers. Sauber’s proper reserve driver being unavailable for some reason meaning De La Rosa who test drives for McClaren to swap overalls.
Once the safety car came in after doing the first 6 laps it looked like Lewis Hamilton was still in the same race mode as Monaco. He is an aggressive driver as we all know and this season out of the total number of overtakes we have seen this season he has performed 10% of them. On turn 1 after the safety car returned to the pit lane he caught the back of Mark Webber who was helpless as he span round facing the oncoming traffic. Only quick thinking and acting calm he quickly spun round the right way and headed back into the race way down the field. After Hamilton had taken out Webber he decided to make his team mate his next victim as on Lap 8 he came out of the corner hot on the heels of Button coming out of the corner onto the straight and trying to come on the outside of Button. The gap was tiny between his team mate and the wall. Button did not see Lewis coming up by his side and whilst the gap was small it didn’t help by Button slightly moving over to the outside of the track and sending Hamilton into the wall. Button yelped down the Radio “What is he doing?” followed by McClaren team telling Hamilton to retire from the race due to the damage caused. Button had a puncture and had to into the pit lane to change tyres. Whilst everything was happening involving Lewis Hamilton, the Pole sitter Vettel was up front and decided to try and persuade the stewards by saying on his radio “This track is un-drivable” prompting the stewards to call off the race. If the race had been stopped Vettel would have got 12.5 points with his rivals Alonso, Button and Hamilton getting 0. The Race was suspended for more than hour giving us Martin Brundle fans a chance for some fine commentary work just to fill the time. He came up with some glorious quotes and the bromance between him and David Couthard blossoming.
Martin Brundle Quotes
"Come on! Get that safety car into the pit lane!"
“Racecar spelt backwards is racecar.”
“'Bad day for Lewis Hamilton and a bad hair day for Rihanna”
"This idea smells brightly of noise."
"The stewards better cancel their flights home tonight, going to have a hell of a lot extra work"
After more than an hour of the drivers hanging around the rain finally stopped which was greeted by the fans that had persevered with the torrential rain. So it was the safety cars job to start the race on lap 26 and continue leading the race until lap 30. When the safety car went in on lap 30 Button was given a drive through penalty after driving too quickly behind the safety car which he took straight away and once he came out decided to crash into the back of Alonso leading him to go straight back into the pits. This meant after half the race he was now in last place. Button was one of the first drivers to switch to Intermediate tyres and that strategy paid off as the McClaren driver came out of the pits and drove out of his skin to move up the field. He was doing laps at a time of 1 min.17 seconds with the rest of the field doing 1min. 24 seconds. He moved past everyone gradually by the time he was on lap 65 of 70 he had now moved up to 5th place behind Mark Webber. Whilst Jenson Button was busy Michael Schumacher was just as busy as he found himself at the top of the field. He was in 4th position behind Vettel, Kobayashi and Massa, with the German deciding he wanted to roll back the years and pull out a stunning double overtake on Kobayashi and Massa. The Japanese driver and the Brazilian obviously getting to distracted with each other not to notice the veteran on the outside of them both. Sadly shortly after the overtake of the day both Button and Webber moving past him to deny the German a spot on the podium.
Button was catching up on Vettel fast, it was unreal that he was chasing down the World Champion even after he went in the pit lane an incredible six times including the drive through penalty. Vettel felt the Englishman breathing down his neck and the pressure got too much as he slid off the track leaving most people in disbelief including Martin Brundle shouting "Vettel finally shows he's human!". Button took his chance calmly to round off a remarkable grand prix for both himself and us fans. The phrase used this season of “Doing a Webber” will never be used again as Button proved he could do even better however no-one will swap Webber with Button in this phrase as it will never been seen again!
The race finished at 10pm local time, a race that started off slowly but became the race people will wish happens every week. Roll on Valencia, they have got a busy two weeks ahead to try and top Montreal.
Driver of the day – It was Michael Schumacher until the 65th lap but from then on this title belongs to Button.
Overtake of the day – Michael Schumacher’ double overtake on Kobayashi and Massa.
Villan of the day – Lewis Hamilton for second week in a row.
Special mention goes to the stewards for getting the track ready again after the torrential rain.
