2011 Canadian Grand Prix

2011 Canadian Grand Prix
Race 7 of 19 in the 2011 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	12 June 2011
Official name	Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada 2011
Location	Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada
Course	Street circuit
Course length	4.361 km (2.71 miles)
Distance	70 laps, 305.27 km (189.7 miles)
Pole position
Driver	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Time	1:13.014
Fastest lap
Driver	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:16.956 on lap 69
Podium
First	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes
Second	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Third	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
Lap leaders

The 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, formally the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada 2011, was the seventh round of the 2011 Formula One season and was held on 12 June 2011 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. It was the 48th Canadian Grand Prix, and the 32nd to be held at the circuit since its début on the calendar in 1978.

Report

Background

In the week leading up to the Spanish Grand Prix, FIA race director Charlie Whiting announced that the Canadian Grand Prix would see the introduction of a secondary Drag Reduction System (DRS) activation zone, with the first being used on the long back straight and the second along the front straight. The plan for a secondary DRS zone would be continued at the European Grand Prix, with future use depending on its success in Montreal and Valencia.

Practice

In the first free practice session, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button suffered mechanical issues, it was a bad session for both Red Bull and McLaren whilst Mercedes and Ferrari were consistently quicker. Vettel crashed into the "Wall of Champions", so-called because former world champions Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher, Jacques Villeneuve and Jenson Button have all crashed at the same spot in the past.

Sergio Pérez was still experiencing after-effects of his accident in Monaco during first free practice and he withdrew from the event. Former Sauber driver and McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa replaced him from second free practice onwards. He reportedly had just ten minutes' warning that he would be racing for Sauber and completed the second practice session in his McLaren racing overalls. De la Rosa lost over an hour of the second session while Pérez's car was adapted to his specifications, but still managed to post the 18th fastest time. Fernando Alonso was fastest, though the session was suspended twice due to separate accidents involving Kamui Kobayashi and Jérôme d'Ambrosio at the same corner.

In Practice 3, Mark Webber experienced a KERS issue meaning he was unable to take part in the session, whilst the session's quickest time was recorded by Vettel with 1:13.381, just ahead of Alonso and Nico Rosberg who at one point set identical fastest times. Felipe Massa also did well in the session with Jenson Button suffering braking problems towards the end. During the session, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Narain Karthikeyan, Timo Glock and d'Ambrosio failed to set times within the 107% rule on the same tyres as the front runners. After Friday's sunny weather, Saturday was more cloudy with some rain.

Qualifying

In the first part of qualifying there was a fight between the Saubers and the Toro Rossos to get through to the second part of the session. Eventually it was Jaime Alguersuari who was knocked out, missing out on the top 17 drivers by just under a tenth of a second. In the second element of the session, Paul di Resta was knocked out, only a couple of tenths behind Nick Heidfeld, whilst de la Rosa and Rubens Barrichello were the slowest two drivers, both outqualified by their team-mates Kobayashi and Pastor Maldonado by three tenths of a second.

In the final ten-minute session, all the teams other than Mercedes decided to do two flying laps. Vettel set the quickest time on his first timed lap, which ultimately gave him his sixth pole position in seven races in 2011. In the closing moments of the session, Massa and Alonso improved their times to complete the top three drivers, with Alonso just outqualifying his team-mate.

Race

The start of the race saw the Safety Car lead for the first 4 laps, Jenson Button got a penalty for speeding while the safety car was deployed, when the Safety Car went in Fernando Alonso attacked Sebastian Vettel but didn't get past whilst Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber made contact in the first turn, Webber spun and dropped to 14th, Hamilton continued until finally making contact with Jenson Button while trying to pass him on the Start-Finish straight, ending his race. The race was subsequently red-flagged due to heavy rain on lap 25, for a period of around 2 hours until the torrential rain in the area has cleared.

As the race went on Jenson Button, the Mercedes cars and Fernando Alonso made the wrong decision with tyres on the intermediates. Whilst at the time the intermediates were better, Felipe Massa and Sebastian Vettel got free of pit stops by waiting until the rain got heavy again. Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa were second and ninth when the race was stopped, Paul di Resta was sixth and Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov were fourth and fifth.
On the last lap, Sebastian Vettel with relatively worn tyres made a mistake on turn two and Jenson Button overtook him and won the race. Vettel secured 2nd position, Webber 3rd and Schumacher got a 4th place finish. Kobayashi and Massa finally finished their battle and Massa took 6th place by a four and a half hundredths of a second.

Currently the results are provisional, as several drivers including Button, Heidfeld and Sutil are all under investigation for seperate incidents.

The Canadian Grand Prix 2011 has been marked as the Longest Grand Prix in history.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Grid
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:14.011	1:13.486	1:13.014	1
2	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:13.822	1:13.672	1:13.199	2
3	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:14.026	1:13.431	1:13.217	3
4	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:14.375	1:13.654	1:13.429	4
5	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:14.114	1:13.926	1:13.565	5
6	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:14.920	1:13.950	1:13.814	6
7	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:14.374	1:13.955	1:13.838	7
8	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:14.970	1:14.242	1:13.864	8
9	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1:15.096	1:14.467	1:14.062	9
10	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:14.699	1:14.354	1:14.085	10
11	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:14.874	1:14.752		11
12	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:15.585	1:15.043		12
13	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:15.694	1:15.285		13
14	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:14.931	1:15.287		14
15	18	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:15.901	1:15.334		15
16	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:15.331	1:15.361		16
17	17	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari	1:16.229	1:15.587		17
18	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:16.294			18
19	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:16.745			19
20	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1:16.786			20
21	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1:18.424			21
22	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:18.537			22
23	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1:18.574			23
107% time: 1:18.989
24	25	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:19.414			241

1. ^ – Jérôme d'Ambrosio failed to set a lap time within the 107% standard in qualifying. The stewards ultimately allowed him to race, having considered that he was using a new chassis after an accident in Friday practice, as well as the fact that he had set a time within 107% in Friday Practice 1.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	70	4:04:39.537	7	25
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	70	+2.7	1	18
3	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	70	+13.8	4	15
4	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	70	+14.2	8	12
5	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	70	+20.3	10	10
6	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	70	+33.2	3	8
7	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	70	+33.2	13	6
8	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	70	+35.9	24	4
9	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	70	+45.1	16	2
10	18	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	70	+47.0	15	1
11	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	70	+50.4	6
12	17	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari	70	+1:03.6	17
13	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	69	+1 Lap	20
14	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	69	+1 Lap	22
15	25	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	69	+1 Lap	23
16	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	69	+1 Lap	21
17	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	69	+1 Lap	18
18	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	67	Accident	11
Ret	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	61	Retired	12
Ret	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	55	Accident	9
Ret	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	49	Accident	14
Ret	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	36	Collision	2
Ret	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	28	Transmission	19
Ret	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	7	Collision	5

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	161
2	Jenson Button	101
3	Mark Webber	94
4	Lewis Hamilton	85
5	Fernando Alonso	69

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Red Bull-Renault	255
2	McLaren-Mercedes	186
3	Ferrari	101
4	Renault	60
5	Mercedes	52

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.