Chaos and confusion may have reigned over the BBC's loss of full F1 rights to Sky, but Button's rainy sky skills once again saw him right when others fell foul of the conditions.
In case you happen to live under a very big rock indeed, the news about the BBC losing the rights to show all the races next season was definitely the talking point ahead of this race. It's certainly going to hit hard next year to only have half the races live on free-to-air TV and I could bang on for ages about the massive annoyance this causes many fans and whose fault it is... in fact I did. See my earlier "Dear Bernie..." post - but only if you've got half an hour and some Valium.
Full marks to Martin Brundle for sneaking in a sly reference to it in Q1 when he asked "who will be in front of us in the job queue next year?"
Quali seemed to suggest another pointy-fingered upset was on the cards, as Vettel stayed shy of the fastest times, until (of course) it really counted and he bagged pole once again. Hamilton and Button lined up next, with a surprised Massa ahead of Alonso and Webber.
Sunday was a great day for stats fans, as the 850th GP saw Button (by now 75% cake) reach his 200th race, whilst Rosberg reached 100 along with the Toro Rosso team. It was also a good day for umbrellas as rain heralded the start of the race.
Seb scrambled away at the start, with JB challenging Hamilton, whilst the Merc boys shot up to 4th and 5th, but rapidly began to drop back. Lewis was soon challenging Seb for the lead, whilst Alonso ran wide and lost a place to Rosberg. Vettel then did likewise and Lewis was out front on Lap 5.
A couple of laps later it was clear that the track was drying, although Massa managed to find a damp bit and narrowly avoided removing the rear of his car.
By lap 11 Webber & Massa decided slicks were worth a gamble and a few rounds later a struggling Seb was passed by Button.
After a long stop, Nick Heidfeld found the going a tad warm for the second time this season and hastily exited his flaming Renault, narrowly avoiding an embarrassing nosedive into the mud as his foot slipped on the damp/melting bodywork. A scary explosion greeted a marshal who was trying to extinguish the flames and some rather odd pulling-a-smoking-car-up-the-pitlane-backwards action took place whilst Nick contemplated keeping a fire extinguisher in his pants.
By mid race, Hamilton was comfortable out front, followed by Button, with a gaining Seb behind him, whilst Webber battled off Alonso.
A range of strategies made it hard to judge what might happen as Alonso pitted early for soft tyres, the Red Bull guys stayed with hards, Hamilton went with the softer tyre and JB the hards too.
Lap 47 decided that though as more rain arrived. Jenson grabbed the lead on his less temperature-sensitive tyres as Hamilton spun wildly, before keeping his boot in to flick the car back into the race whilst a startled di Resta got off the track to avoid him.
Within a few laps there were more cars off the track than on it as conditions deteriorated and Hamilton briefly bagged the lead back from his team-mate as Jenson ran wide. They proceeded to swap positions twice more before Hamilton went for inters on lap 53.
Webber did likewise, but at just at the wrong moment as the rain stopped, and headed back in for slicks and a sulk.
Lewis was struggling as the track dried and then gained a drive-through for his di Resta-scaring incident, as if things couldn't get worse anyway. Hence lap 56 saw him out of the equation with JB at the front again and Seb closing once more.
Alonso spun again, just to prove how bloody tricky it was out there and Lewis managed to bag a dozing Massa, whilst the mother, sister and daughter of midfield ding-dongs was going on for 7th with Kobayashi on knackered tyres doing his damnedest to stay ahead. It didn't work very well...
Webber sneaked past Lewis is the traffic chaos, but lost out again not long afterwards, leaving a delighted Button to savour the champagne, cake and a win average of 1 race per year. So far, anyway...
Relatively un-noticed, the not-so-good-Seb managed to haul his not-quite-a-Red-Bull up from 23rd on the grid to 8th. Good job fella.
JB was rightly chuffed post-race, but Hamilton had been replaced by some kind of robot who said he was sorry for spinning in front of di Resta, didn't complain about anything and was delighted for Button. Ooo. Scary. That boy has some seriously big mood-swings.
So, Seb got beaten again eh? Happy days for the championship battle then! Er... no. Button wasn't his nearest rival, so he extends his lead yet again. The pointy-finger may be on standby, but it'll straight in everyone's face again pretty soon.
4 weeks off from Formula 1? That's going to be tough. Here's my top tip though: Talk about F1 with your friends, but turn the lights off for half the time. That way you'll be used to it if you don't have Sky next year...
(Mr Brian May is asking "Why Don't We Try Again". Oh go on, then. I never could resist that curly hair.)
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