Four Hours in Montreal: The Race That Refused to End

By the time Jenson Button crossed the finish line at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve just after six o'clock on a Sunday evening, he had been involved in a motor race for four hours and four minutes. The Canadian Grand Prix of 2011 is the longest Formula 1 race in history, and it produced what many consider the greatest individual drive of the modern era: a man starting seventh, incurring damage and dropping to last, and winning from further behind than any driver had recovered from in the sport's recent memory.

The race had been suspended for two hours under a red flag as heavy rain rendered the circuit genuinely undriveable. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, built on the Île Notre-Dame in the middle of the St. Lawrence River, has drainage challenges at the best of times. In a Montreal thunderstorm, it becomes a river. The stoppage stretched the race into late afternoon, the cloud eventually clearing to reveal the steaming tarmac drying under pale sunshine.

Button's McLaren had made contact with his teammate Lewis Hamilton in the pit lane during one of the many stops that characterised the race's complex tyre management picture. The resulting damage dropped Button to last place with around twenty laps remaining. What followed was not a recovery drive in the conventional sense — it was a demonstration of what a driver can do when pace, intelligence and patience are applied without panic. Button picked off one car, then another, then another, his McLaren's pace on fresh tyres clear and consistent.

With two laps remaining, he came upon Michael Schumacher in fifth. Through. Then the back of Sebastian Vettel's damaged Red Bull. Through. Then, with less than a lap to go, behind Fernando Alonso — the double World Champion who had led this race for enormous stretches, who had done everything correctly, who had the victory in his hands. Into the hairpin at Turn 14, the slowest corner on the circuit, Button went for the inside. Alonso had no answer. Button was gone. He crossed the line arms aloft, his race engineer's voice cracking in his earpiece.

Jenson Button won the Canadian Grand Prix for McLaren, completing one of the most celebrated recovery drives in modern Formula 1 history. Fernando Alonso finished second for Renault, having led the race substantially only to be passed at the final possible moment. Michael Schumacher — who at 42 was in his third season of retirement-ending comeback — finished third for Mercedes, one of his finest results in his second stint in the sport.

Sebastian Vettel, who was dominant in the 2011 championship and had led this race at various points, suffered multiple incidents and finished fourth — a result that damaged his championship advantage barely at all. Vitaly Petrov completed the top five. The race took four hours, four minutes and thirty-nine seconds from lights to flag, the longest duration in Formula 1 history.

Vettel was running away with the 2011 championship in a Red Bull that was the class of the field, and even his difficult Canadian Grand Prix inflicted no serious damage on his lead. He was on course to win his second successive title with considerable authority, which he duly did. Button's victory was important for McLaren's standing in the Constructors' Championship but its significance lay more in what it represented: proof that in the right conditions, with the right approach, results that appear impossible can be achieved.

Button's drive that afternoon in Montreal became the reference point for his own career — an illustration of the qualities that had made him World Champion in 2009. Patience. Intelligence. The ability to perform under extreme pressure when everything has apparently gone wrong. Not every champion wins in the same way; Button's way was entirely his own.

June 2011 was a turbulent month in world affairs. The Arab Spring had reshaped North Africa and was continuing to spread. Syria had descended into civil conflict. The earthquake and tsunami that had struck Japan in March had caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which was still being managed. In Canada, Stephen Harper's Conservative government had won a parliamentary majority in elections held just seven weeks earlier.

Montreal is a city with a particular, intense relationship with motor racing — it bears the name of Gilles Villeneuve on its circuit and the memories of a French-Canadian driver who embodied the city's pride and passion. The crowd that had waited through the two-hour rain delay, that had queued in the rain and returned to damp seats to watch the resumption, were rewarded with something they will not forget. They saw Button win. They saw Schumacher on the podium. They were present, in a four-hour afternoon on an island in a river, for one of the great Formula 1 stories.

Dry and warm at the race start, with conditions typical of Montreal in June. A major thunderstorm arrived mid-race, producing rainfall of sufficient intensity to make the circuit undriveable, leading to the red flag after lap 25. The two-hour stoppage was one of the longest in the sport's history. When racing resumed, conditions remained damp but improved progressively lap by lap. By the final stages, the circuit was largely dry, though moisture patches in the shadows of the circuit walls meant tyre management remained critical throughout.