Jenson Button wins Canadian GP in the final lap

Epic victory from McLaren’s driver snatching No. 1 from Sebastian Vettel in the epilogue of the race and climbing to No. 2 in the standings.

What a race was lived at the Canadian Grand Prix, where not even the rain was able to stop it from having an epic ending, after being red flagged for two hours. Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel had clinched the pole position and had been able to hold to it for 69 laps, but in the next and final lap an error was going to cost him the race, for Jenson Button from McLaren took advantage of it to claim the first place, and ruin what could have been the defending champion’s fifth victory of the year.

The Canadian GP represented the first victory of the season for Button, who was also able to snatch No. 2 from Reb Bull’s Mark Webber in the standings. With a time of 4:04:39.537 he completed the longest race in F1 history, time that could have been reduced if it wasn’t for the weather that caused the race to be red flagged for about two hours, and not to forget the also record breaking six times safety car deployment.

Fans present at the Circuit Gilles Villenueve witness how Button completed 34 passes throughout a race that had all the ingredients that an epic tale must have: suspense, controversy and a heroic ending of course. Suspense because of the danger that a wet circuit at high speeds supposed to drivers; controversy because while it was stopped some teams illegally took advantage of it to change tires; and a heroic ending as Button snatched No. 1 in the final lap.

Despite losing the race in the final seconds this shouldn’t suppose a setback for Vettel in his title defense, as he still enjoys of a 60-point lead. For whom it does suppose a mishap is to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who had to abandon the race for the first time in the season, and sees how the first place gets further away race after race.

After fighting for the title until the last race of the 2010 season, Alonso is having a deceiving 2011 where he hasn’t even won a race, something that he attributes to bad luck. Despite being 92 points behind Vettel, Alonso said that as long as it continues to be “mathematically possible” he will continue fighting for the tile.

Lewis Hamilton is also losing terrain week after week in the battle for the title, and the reason for that is no other than his aggressive style, which is getting him into a lot of trouble this season –crashed four people in two races-. After receiving strong critics, Hamilton said he wasn’t going to change his ways, and he made that pretty clear in the first lap of the Canadian GP by tangling with teammate Webber first, and then twice with Michael Schumacher from Mercedes.

A reaction from both Alonso and Hamilton will be expected at the European Grand Prix, which is scheduled for June 26 at Valencia, Spain where the condition of being the defending champion and having won last year race will make Vettel the favorite.