Button wins Formula One swim meet
The safety car leads a gaggle of cars through the rain on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Phil Carpenter, Gazette
It was a racing purist’s nightmare. But for anyone who loves motorsport for the fun of it, Sunday’s 42nd Canadian Grand Prix was off the charts.
Torrential rains, dozens of pit stops, strategies for tires, strewn car parts, incredible skill shown in blinding conditions, stewards’ investigations – all of it combined to produce a thrilling victory for McLaren-Mercedes’ Jenson Button.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel led every lap but the final one, the only one that matters. Button seized upon Vettel’s bobble on a wet track to race past with the checkered flag nearly in view to earn his first Circuit Gilles Villeneuve win.
Here’s my column on a remarkable day at the track.
Motor Man Madness :
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel does a little studying in the garage during Saturday qualifying.
Nicholas Kamm, AFP, Getty Images
Stop us if you’ve heard this before: Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel has claimed the pole for a Formula One Grand Prix.
In fact, Vettel’s fastest run in qualifying for Sunday’s 42nd Canadian Grand Prix is his sixth pole in seven attempts this year, and the runaway leader in the world drivers championship – a title he won last season – will start from the inside of the front row at 1 pm ET. Seventy laps down the road, he’s expected to be first to the finish, although strange things have been known to happen on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Vettel’s qualifying time Saturday afternoon of 1:13.014 nipped a Ferrari pair who will start second and third. Fernado Alonso was second-quickest in 1:13.199, .185 seconds behind, while Massa ran a 1:13.207, +.203.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top five.
Vettel’s pole win snapped at three the streak Hamilton had going as fastest qualifier. The 2008 world champion who has won two of the last three Canadian races, was lacklustre in his effort Saturday.
Forecast rain never materialized, leaving teams to run on Pirelli slicks instead of rain tires they thought they might need.
There still is the possibility of wet conditions for the race, to be telecast on TSN and RDS at 1 pm ET.
The theme of this column is the theme, and how it is becoming incrementally more pervasive, notably in the programming of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, artistic director and principal conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain.
Nézet-Séguin offers variations of theme
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