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Hamilton matches idol Senna with win at Suzuka
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Lewis Hamilton always dreamed of matching the achievements of his boyhood idol Ayrton Senna, winning as many races and titles as the late great Brazilian who had inspired him to beat the odds.
Full of hope, despite his under-privileged background, the youngster would come home from school and put on a video of Senna karting.
As the Formula One champion reminisced earlier this month in a BBC column, 鈥淚 wanted to be like him. I aspired to one day drive the way he drove, and achieve something similar to what he achieved. At the time, I felt that if I could get anywhere close to doing anything similar to him I would be super-proud of myself. That is what I set my sights on all those years ago.鈥
Yesterday, at the same Suzuka circuit where Senna won all three of his world championships and wrote some of the most controversial and colorful pages in F1 history, Hamilton equalled Senna鈥檚 41 race wins.
In doing so, the Briton took another huge step toward his own third title. Teammate Nico Rosberg was second with Ferrari鈥檚 Sebastian Vettel finishing third in an exact repeat of last year鈥檚 top three at Suzuka. With five races left, Hamilton now has 277 points to Rosberg鈥檚 229 with Vettel further back on 218.
He will surely win many more races in years to come but No. 41 will always be special. 鈥淔or me to come here to a race where I used to love watching Ayrton drive and to match his wins... yeah, I can鈥檛 really describe it, it doesn鈥檛 really feel real at the moment,鈥 the Mercedes driver said.
Yesterday was Hamilton鈥檚 162nd race, one more than Senna started in a career that ended tragically at Imola in 1994, and he had already overtaken the Brazilian鈥檚 tally of 80 podiums and 19 fastest laps.
Senna won twice at Suzuka in 1988 and 1993 and Hamilton鈥檚 victory was also his second at the circuit 鈥 his first Japanese triumph coming at Fuji in 2007 with a similar yellow helmet to the Brazilian鈥檚.
鈥淚t was such an amazing race,鈥 he said. 鈥淭his has been a circuit that I can honestly say that I鈥檝e struggled (at) through all the years that I鈥檝e come here but one that I鈥檝e loved driving.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like sailing. When you go through the corners here, it鈥檚 flowing. Honestly, I wish I could share the feeling with you,鈥 continued the 30-year-old.
鈥淎lso knowing that this would be the race that I would equal Ayrton, who won here and who had quite an interesting time here... quite an emotional day. But to be honest I鈥檓 not a teary guy, so I鈥檓 just full of joy and happiness and light.鈥
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