Button and Hamilton are a team, but not mates
By MARTIN SAMUEL
The sight of Lewis Hamilton's car disappearing on the back of a tow truck, red warning light flashing murkily through the mist and spray, may now be the defining image of a blighted season.
It will be scant consolation for him that Jenson Button, his colleague, executed one of the greatest drives in the history of Formula 1 to win the Canadian Grand Prix.
This is a team sport in name only.
For Hamilton, his McLaren co-worker was the source of his greatest frustration on Sunday.
Flashpoint: Hamilton and teammate Jenson Button collide
He was the guy that took him out of the race, and almost certainly the championship, too.
There would seem to be no way back for Hamilton now, although Button's incredible victory - he overtook Sebastian Vettel on the last lap, having made six pit stops to the German's three - temporarily lifted the Addams family size cloud hovering over the McLaren motor home.
For Hamilton, though, with hopes so high, his race ended in the most infuriating fashion. Team collision.
Hamilton was derailed by his supposed ally, in a moment that had McLaren employees contemplating two pieces of wreckage: that of Hamilton's suspension and perhaps their dream partnership, too.
Under a cloud: Hamilton and Jenson must weather storm
The Spanish villa in which Mr and Mrs Giggs are working out some local difficulties would not have contained as much bottled-up tension as the house of McLaren when Hamilton and Button came together at the start of lap eight yesterday.
In doing so, they committed one of the cardinal sins of motor sport, and were roundly condemned by most professional observers.
Yet is that fair?
Button recovered brilliantly to deliver arguably the drive of his life, while Hamilton is inescapably undermined by a car that is inferior to the Red Bull of Vettel.
Each grand prix therefore becomes a story of his struggle to beat these odds, by taking increasing chances, by racing with an aggression that some find unpalatable, by driving on the ragged edge.
He is sneered at as an unreconstructed karter at the wheel of a Formula 1 car.
Yet, until Sunday, take Hamilton away and this season is Vettel's alone: a predictable procession of astute driving, technical excellence and good fortune.
Until Button's intervention, Hamilton was the only driver to beat Vettel to the chequered flag - with a superb drive of his own in China - and is so often the man doing the pushing, even in defeat.
It is a thankless task when car and driver are in harmony as Vettel and his Red Bull have been and, as Hamilton grows ever more desperate so his risk-taking increases.
Forced off: Disaster for Hamilton as he is forced to retire after crashing with Button
'If you see a gap and don't go for it, you are no longer a racing driver,' said Ayrton Senna, and if Hamilton is to be condemned for living this way, then what is the point in any of it?
The crowds that flocked to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve had already been deprived of one of F1's greatest spectacles - the charge to the first corner - when the race was started behind the safety car.
Take Hamilton's bravura behind the wheel away and large slices of yesterday's race would have consisted of Vettel leading little more than a parade.
'What is he doing?' Button asked, immediately after the crash.
Having taken out the headliner, he at least provided his own big finish.
Where do they go from here, McLaren's odd couple?
It depends on the sincerity of yesterday's post-mortem.
Button said he did not see Hamilton; Hamilton accepted his explanation. The win changed the agenda to a positive one, and McLaren will be thankful for that.
Coming together: Mark Webber (left) and Lewis Hamilton (right) were involved in an early skirmish
No doubt, from here the standard courtesies will be extended in the build-up to Silverstone, tensions will be played down and smiles fixed patiently on for the cameras.
The reality of Formula 1 is unchanged, however. Colleagues are unavoidably also rivals. They may be a team, but they are not mates.
Not in the conventional sense. Not as participants in true team sports pull together.
'Colliding with your team-mate is the one thing you want to avoid at all costs,' announced BBC analyst David Coulthard, in a moment of stunning perception.
He might as well have added that it is best not to reverse over the team principal's foot, or spark up a Cuban while refuelling.
Indeed, either might have been preferable to what happened on Sunday.
Water performance: Button raced from last place to clinch the Canadian Grand Prix
Some will argue it was an accident waiting to happen after Britain's world champions went head-to-head beneath the same constructor's flag.
The truth is they have accepted this challenge with great maturity.
Even with the relationship tested to the limit, Hamilton refused to entertain the idea that Button would have acted knowingly in Montreal.
Publicly, at least.
As Hamilton saw it, Button made a mistake coming into the final corner of lap seven, so he moved to pass him.
Halfway up, Button came across.
Champagne moment: Button did not have to play second fiddle to Hamilton
'Whether he saw me or not, I don't know,' Hamilton mused.
Then he hit the wall.
The DNA of a driver is programmed to pursue a single-minded goal, so behind the genial facade of a man like Button beats the heart of the fiercest competitor who was never going to be happy with a role as Hamilton's support act.
So it proved in Montreal.
Hamilton's plight forgotten, Button was remorseless in pursuit of the prize.
The horrid driving conditions make for mitigating circumstances and Button is allowed to protect his position, but plainly an error was made.
Blame will be apportioned on both sides; to Button for simple carelessness, to Hamilton for another drive that his critics claim resembled The Cannonball Run.
Thriller: Button in a happy place as he celebrates with his McLaren team
He had already been involved in a tear-up with Mark Webber that had seen the Australian's Red Bull finish up facing the wrong way, and another with Michael Schumacher.
Yet Hamilton has spent a lot of time apologising of late - for his driving, for his opinions - but he should not have to apologise for this.
Button did; but then he was in a happy place by the end of the race and could afford to be generous.
Both men will continue to project an aura of mutual affection and supportiveness, all the while doing everything in their power to scramble first through the turn, to duck, dive and outmanoeuvre each other around every treacherous bend.
Because that is Formula 1; and that is why accidents happen.
Even between friends.
Credit: The Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk)
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