Hamilton wants to race Vettel like Senna and Mansell

Lewis Hamilton says he is "dying to" be able to race Sebastian Vettel wheel to wheel like Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna.

With Ferrari having closed the gap to Mercedes this season and Vettel winning on three occasions, the four-time world champion is often Hamilton's biggest threat other than team-mate Nico Rosberg. However, rarely have the two teams been closely matched and Hamilton says he wants to race Vettel closely next season.

“I’m looking forward to that,” Hamilton told Sky Italia. “There have been races we have had this year where there has been such distance between us, I’m dying to.

“I saw a photo the other day where Nigel and Ayrton were wheel to wheel down the straight with sparks coming out. I picture that, I can’t wait for that to be me and Sebastian.

“Imagine if we had a race like Bahrain that me and Nico [Rosberg] had last year, where we’re back and forth, back and forth. That would be the most exciting thing ever. But where that will happen, we’ll have to wait and see.”

However, Hamilton will have to wait to find out if Ferrari can challenge Mercedes in Russia after limited running in FP1 was followed by a wet afternoon session.

"You sit and wait. You watch and hope that the track is going to get better. I have to say today we learnt more than we did last weekend because we went out and tested the wing and got some information on a single lap. So we did get some information, but in terms of myself there is not much to learn from today."

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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.

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