Vettel leads Canadian GP, race suspended after 23 laps
The Canadian GP has got underway under the safetycar, but after some interrupted racing by incidents, the rain increased. Eventually race control suspended racing action after 23 laps. At the suspension, Vettel is in the lead, ahead of Kobayashi and Massa.
Ahead of the start of this Canadian GP, a lot of rain fell down on the track, resulting in a lot of standing water. Of course, in good FIA tradition of recent years, that calls for a start behind the safety car, even though it's not raining anymore.
Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari meanwhile decided to start from the pitlane, instead of from 18th position on the grid. The change gave Jaime and his team the time to change his set-up towards the wet weather.
As expected, when the race got started, there are no position changes, simply because they are not allowed behind the safety car.
7 minutes into the race and after 4 laps behind the SC, race control announces that the safety car is to be off the track at the end of the lap.
As they cross the starting line, Alonso is extremely close to Vettel but is unable to overtake as he chose the outside of turn 1. Behind them, Hamilton takes the inside on Webber. They both touch without damaging their cars, but Hamilton is down to 7th while Mark Webber spun and could only rejoin in position 14.
4 turns later Button had a moment and dropped behind Michael Schumacher.
On lap 8, as Button comes onto the pit straight, Hamilton comes aside of Button, but as Button goes to the left towards the pitwall and takes the normal racing line, Jenson apparently didn't see Hamilton and closed the gap on Hamilton. The latter broke his front wing and punctured the left rear due to touching the pit wall.
As Lewis stopped 5 turns further down the circuit, the safety car was deployed again. Button took the pitlane immediately and changed to intermediate tyres, probably just taking a chance as he is already some way down the field. Button rejoined the track in 12th place, behind Maldonado and ahead of Sutil.
Meanwhile Mark Webber points out he has an intermittent downshift problem on his car. The team noted that the will try a steering wheel change at their first pitstop.
After another 4 laps behind the SC, racing is back on at the beginning of lap 13. One lap later Button is going through the pitlane as he was handed a drive through penalty for lapping too quickly behind the safety car.
In lap 15, Button is starting to enjoy the intermediates as he passes Barrichello, Sutil and Maldonado in the same lap. That triggered Barrichello to change to intermediates at the end of that lap. One lap later Button is 4 seconds quicker on lap 16 as he had a bit of clear track. By the end of that lap he ended up right behind Paul Di Resta.
At the end of lap 17, Alonso and Rosberg switch to intermediates. Alonso ends up in between the Renaults, just two places ahead of Jenson Button. One lap later, Alonso passes Heidfeld while Button passed Petrov.
A single lap further into the race, heavy rain fell down again, triggering another safety car and making everyone on intermediates to change back to full wets. Both Red Bulls make their first stops too while Felipe Massa pits one lap later. Michael Schumacher does the same as well.
By lap 23, the stops ended and the field has settled behind the safety car. Sebastian Vettel is still leading, now ahead of Kobayashi who hasn't made a stop yet. Felipe Massa with a single stop is third, ahead of Heidfeld, Petrov and Di Resta (all 0 stops). Mark Webber is behind them (1 stop) and ahead of Alonso who has already made two stops.
Two laps later, the race is red flagged. At the end of that lap, all drivers stop on the starting grid. Rain is expected to continue for quite a while, and there is no sign about a restart any time soon.
