Lewis Hamilton poised to match ‘idol’ Ayrton Senna’s record in Singapore GP

“Lewis Hamilton drove a text-book race for Mercedes, ending up with a well-deserved victory thanks to a perfectly executed strategy”. The 30-year-old Briton said that he wants to imitate Senna’s success in Formula One (F1), but also made it clear that he wants to be inimitable in his own way.

While comparing driver records from different generations in F1 is fraught with problems – Senna, for example, racked up 63 DNFs in his 161 starts (39%) whereas Hamilton, in an era of far greater car reliability, has failed to finish on just 22 occasions (14%) – the basic statistics nonetheless reveal a remarkable similarity in the numbers between Hamilton and his hero. Hamilton said he feels “proud” to be at par with the Brazilian racing driver in terms of results. “Singapore is a circuit I really enjoy and the timing of my debut could not be more perfect”, Rossi said.

“Our target is to be on the podium which is difficult as Mercedes have the strongest package at the moment and if nothing goes wrong they have two cars on the podium and there is not much space left, but we have been pretty good at getting our maximum and most of the time getting that last place“.

Lewis Hamilton is the bookies’ favourite to claim his eighth win of the season.

While it may not have been an outright record since 2006, when Schumacher raised the benchmark to 68, Senna’s 65 poles – and remarkable 40% strike rate – remains perhaps the three-time champion’s most eye-catching achievement.

Lewis Hamilton is on course for his third world championship after opening up a 53-point lead over Nico Rosberg following victory at Monza last weekend. Vettel has won twice.

To quote McLaren-Honda driver Fernando Alonso, who has won through the streets of Singapore on two occasions, “the race is a modern-day classic”.

Hamilton tweeted a picture of himself smiling as he arrived, but it has not been a happy week for Singapore’s 5.4 million residents as pollution soared to unhealthy levels accompanied by acrid smoke smell.

“It’s an interesting event, running on European time to allow for night-time track running and provides a significant physical test for drivers and team members alike”, Lowe said. It’s a very challenging race physically, so it’s important that we train properly and prepare effectively to keep ourselves on top form all weekend.