MOTORSPORT: Audi, Button-McLaren and Power oval glory

Audi won the Le Mans 24-hour sports car classic in France after two of its three works entries were eliminated in massive crashes in the early hours.

Jenson Button won a bizarre Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, overtaking Sebastian Vettel when the German made a mistake on the last lap, and Mark Webber was third after a first-corner drama.

And Will Power finally won on an oval track in the IndyCar series.

The sole surviving works Audi, which had started from pole position and led almost the entire race, finished just 13.854 seconds ahead of a Peugeot driven by Frenchmen Simon Pagenaud and Sebastien Bourdais and Portugal's Pedro Lamy.

Peugeots also finished third, two laps down, fourth and fifth.

It was Audi's 10th victory at Le Mans and its seventh in the past eight years. Peugeot won in 2009.

A brief report on the latest race by international news agency Reuters is here, Audi's version of events is here while video of McNish's crash – lucky not to have killed him and officials and photographers behind the tyre wall he hit - is here.

It began behind a safety car and was stopped for more than two hours because of rain but the racing was compelling in the end – and will add to the controversy of whether F1 should be making major rules changes for 2013 when its "show" is perhaps the best it's ever been.

Sebastian Vettel was on course to win again but slipped off the dry racing line on the last lap, was lucky to save his Red Bull-Renault from spinning on the damp edge, but saw Jenson Button's McLaren-Mercedes nip by to give the Englishman his 10th GP victory.

And it was a perfect 10 for Button. He survived contact with teammate Lewis Hamilton on the eighth lap that put Hamilton out of the race, later contact with Fernando Alonso's Ferrari from which the Spaniard ended up against a wall, was given a drive-through penalty for speeding behind the pace car and after 37 of the 70 laps was last.

"Definitely my best race," Button said.

A Reuters account of his success is here.

The race started badly for Australia's Mark Webber too – his Red Bull RB7 was turned around at the first corner by Hamilton – but he clawed his way back to third place for his third podium of the year.

Webber is still without a win this season – Vettel with five and Hamilton and now Button with one each have been the only victors – but some of the Aussie's performances have been commendable.

He ought to retain his Red Bull seat if, as it seems, he wants to drive another season, although Red Bull motorsport director Dr Helmut Marko has indicated that the energy drinks company's second team Scuderia Toro Rosso's drivers are being considered for the slot if it becomes vacant, however that may be.

The Toro Rosso pair, Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari and Switzerland's Sebatien Buemi, were both in the points in Montreal – in eighth and 10th respectively.

"It was eventful! I had a few people to pass after the break; it wasn't too hard until the dry line appeared on the racing line and it was slippery off line.

"It was then very hard to clear some of the guys, as it meant there was such a narrow window to get down the inside of people.

"When you have experienced guys like Michael (Schumacher) and Nick (Heidfeld) to pass, well those guys know what they're doing, so it becomes even trickier.

"I decided to roll the dice and go on to the slicks. I was happy to see that not everyone followed immediately, so I had two laps which was enough to bring me back in the game for the podium.

"Then it was a pretty good fight with Michael. We both wanted the same bit of track when we were braking for the chicane, but when JB (Button) arrived, he was absolutely flying.

"Today's result means plenty of points for the team and it's a good result, so I'm pretty happy with that."

And here's Red Bull team principal Christian Horner's story of the day:

"After a long afternoon and to have pretty much led every lap of the race (by Sebastian Vettel), it was obviously frustrating to lose the Grand Prix almost in sight of the chequered flag.

"Jenson was very quick in the closing stages of the race and Sebastian was fighting very hard to keep him out of the DRS (drag reduction system – or driver-adjustable rear wing - zone, as we could see how powerful that was.

"Unfortunately Sebastian made a rare mistake on a day when a lot of drivers made a lot of mistakes. He paid a price, but second is still a very good result and far from disastrous.

"We got a lot of points and Sebastian's only 14 points off a maximum score after seven races, which is an achievement in itself.

"I think Formula One provided tremendous entertainment this afternoon. Mark battled his way back through the field and had a great duel with Michael; he put in an excellent drive to join Sebastian on the podium, so from a team point of view to get a second and third on a day when neither Fernando nor Lewis scored, is still a very good afternoon's work."

Formula One World Drivers' Championship after seven of 19 rounds
1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 161 oints, 2. Jenson Button (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 101, 3. Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 94, 4. Lewis Hamilton (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 85, 5. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 69, 6. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 32, 7. Vitaly Petrov (Russia, Renault) 31, 8. Nick Heidfeld (Germany, Renault) 29, 9. Michael Schumacher (Germany, Mercedes) 26, 10. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 26, 11. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan, Sauber-Ferrari) 25, 12. Adrian Sutil (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 8, 13. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 8, 14. Jaime Alguersuari (Spain, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 4, 15. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil, Williams-Cosworth) 4, 16. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Sauber-Ferrari) 2, 17. Paul di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 2.

Dario Franchitti won the opening race in the unique format, edging Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon by 0.05 seconds, with Power third for Team Penske.

Power then won the second race, with Dixon again runner-up.

Power now leads the series by 21 points from Franchitti, who bleated loudly about the starting order for the second race being decided by random draw.
Scotsman Franchitti drew 28 in the field of 30 for that race but worked his way through to finish seventh but said it had been "just a lottery".

"Surely racing is about skill,'' he added, saying that he would have preferred a reverse grid.

Power had to take quick evasive action to avoid a coasting, out-of-fuel American Graham Rahal before his final stop.

The Aussie, who started third, led from 39th lap, overtaking Brazilian Tony Kanaan and beating New Zealander Dixon by a second with Power's Sydneysider teammate Ryan Briscoe third.

Power began the weekend with a 16-point lead over Franchitti, who cut it to seven points in the first race, before Power blew his advantage out to 21 in the second race.

An Australian rookie, Wade Cunningham, drove at Texas – leasing the car in which Englishman Dan Wheldon won the Indianapolis 500 two weeks ago.

Cunnigham, a graduate of Indy Lights, started the second race on the front row but only because of his luck in drawing No 2.

Jeff Gordon won in a Chevrolet from Kurt Busch in a Dodge and Kyle Busch in a Toyota, with Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Juan Montoya filling the next four spots in Chevrolets.

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