Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton feels he is winning for Senna

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Lewis Hamilton feels he is winning races for both himself and Ayrton Senna as he closes in on equalling the Brazilian's F1 record.

If Hamilton wins in Singapore on Sunday he will have the exact same record of race starts (161) and victories (41) as Senna achieved in his career. While not putting too much emphasis on winning this weekend, Hamilton expects to surpass Senna's tally and believes his own final total will highlight how much more then triple world champion could have achieved had he not been killed at Imola in 1994.

Asked for a highlight of Senna's career, Hamilton replied: "Something like Donington.

"I quite liked when Senna and [Alain] Prost crashed in Japan and then he won - that race stands out to me. He never gave up and kept pushing. Reminds me of karting, I would get knocked off and then I would come back.

"I am not approaching this weekend thinking that if I win this race I will equal him. It doesn’t matter if it is this weekend, next weekend or the weekend after, I will eventually have the same number of wins as Ayrton.

"If Ayrton had been able to continue, he would have won many more races and many more championships, so I think I am carrying the baton for both of us and striving to win more for the both of us. I think if he was around, we would be friends."

Chris Medland's Singapore Grand Prix preview

2016 F1 driver line-ups so far

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.