Tires played a central role at Montreal's Canadian
Grand Prix over the weekend. After a prolonged red
flag period due to torrential rain, Jenson Button
claimed his first win of the year using three
different types of Pirelli P Zero Formula One
rubber.
Button passed Sebastian Vettel on the final lap to
win the race, despite a collision with his
teammate, a drive-through penalty and five pit
stops, which at one point in the race had Button
back in 21st place.
The race began in wet conditions behind the safety
car for the first four laps, which meant that all
the cars started on the P Zero Orange full wet
tires – the first time that this has happened all
year. Button was the first driver to switch to the
debut P Zero Blue intermediate tires on lap
eight.
However, the rain returned just over half an hour
after the race started and brought out the safety
car. Shortly afterwards, on lap 24, the race was
red-flagged as conditions were un-driveable.
According to the rules, teams were allowed to
change tires and work on their cars while they
waited for racing to resume.
The race restarted nearly two hours later, once
again on the P Zero Orange tires. As conditions
dried out, the leading runners moved onto
intermediate tires, then slick tires. Button made a
final stop for the P Zero Red supersoft tires on
lap 51 to win the race by 2.7 seconds, having taken
full advantage of one more safety car period with
just 12 laps to go.
Vettel – who led every lap apart from the final one
– finished second on the P Zero Red supersoft tires
after three stops, while teammate Mark Webber was
third. The final eight laps saw a frenetic battle
for the podium places, with Vettel defending from
Button, Webber and Michael Schumacher.
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The finish occurred nearly four and a half hours
after the race began.
“This was one of the most thrilling and
unpredictable grands prix we have seen so far this
season, with an amazing drive from Jenson Button
and all three podium places decided on the very
final lap,” observes Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s
motorsports director.
“We finally got a wet race, which showcased the
effectiveness of our P Zero Orange full wet and
also the P Zero Blue intermediate tire,” he
says.
“Once the race re-started, it was very interesting
for us to run the wet and intermediate tire down to
the crossover point, which we’ve never done before
in competition,” Hembery points out. “This proved
to be a key point in the strategy as both Button
and Vettel showed. We really enjoyed watching Kamui
Kobayashi as well, who delivered a fantastically
spirited drive in a race that was well worth the
wait. The final battle for the podium was
definitely one of our highlights of the year so
far.”
For more information, visit www.us.pirelli.com.
