Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and, all the more as of late, Lewis Hamilton have made a case for the informal title of Formula 1’s rain ace through wonderful authority of wet conditions, yet maybe it is another Briton who genuinely merits that moniker. Of Jenson Button’s 15 F1 wins, seven of them have come in rain-influenced races.
So frequently in his career, Button has exceeded expectations in alterable conditions, especially on clammy tracks where it has not been obvious whether smooth, middle or full-wet tires were the approach.
Maybe no race preferred exemplified this over the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix – the longest in F1 history at four hours and four minutes – when he charged through the field from last position after 40 of 70 laps to assert a phenomenal triumph.
With the 36-year-old Briton reporting that Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be his last F1 race, resources investigate how Button wakes up when the rain falls.
A two-hour rain suspension, five wellbeing cars, two crashes for the champ and six visits to the pits – one of them a drive-through punishment.
Assist substantial rain brought the wellbeing car out on lap 20 preceding the race was suspended on lap 25. When it was in the long run continued two hours after the fact, they needed to do another nine laps under security car conditions before the track was considered sufficiently fit to race.
Three laps after the re-begin, the wellbeing car was conveyed once more when Button and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso crashed on lap 37.
Button’s advance from 21st after 40 laps to first after 70 was a totally amazing accomplishment.
Beginning seventh in a race started under the wellbeing car in wet conditions, he crushed McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton into the pit divider as they entered lap nine and the two cars impacted, splashing flotsam and jetsam over the track. The occurrence incited Button to yell importantly over team radio: “What’s going on with he?”
