F1
Lewis Larkam 7y

How Ayrton Senna's 1988 Monaco crash kept Lewis Hamilton focused

Formula 1

Lewis Hamilton says he drew inspiration from Formula One hero Ayrton Senna in order to avoid crashing on his way to claiming his 60th career victory at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Following a quick getaway from fifth on the grid, and aided by a dramatic first-corner collision that wiped out rivals Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen, and Max Verstappen -- all of whom started ahead of Hamilton -- the Briton found himself in the race-lead on the first lap, which he would never relinquish.

Aside from the chaotic opening lap, Hamilton had to contend with difficult wet/dry conditions in the first rain-affected race in Singapore en route to sealing a commanding win ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. The Briton said he kept in mind Senna's crash while dominating the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix to ensure he remained on-track and brought his Mercedes W08 home in one piece.

"I could have easily just binned it," Hamilton explained. "Generally, through the whole race, every now and then, Senna pops into my mind... his Monaco Grand Prix where he was in the lead and hit the wall. That always comes in and reminds me not to do that. It's almost like he talks to me: 'just stay focused, keep it together'."

A win for Hamilton looked unlikely going into the race, following Mercedes' struggles in qualifying. But when rain started to fall ahead of lights out, Hamilton, who broke Michael Schumacher's pole position record in treacherous conditions at the previous race in Monza, believed he could pull off victory from the lowest grid position in Singapore since Fernando Alonso's win at the inaugural night race in 2008.

"Normally when it rains, you're a little bit apprehensive, it's a little bit nerve wracking, because it makes it so much trickier for us and here we've never even driven in the rain. But for me, I'm kind of like 'yes!'.

"I think there's a couple of us that particularly love those conditions more than maybe others. I just know that when those conditions happen it's more of a lottery, there's more opportunity, it levels the playing field, and then there's a real race and that's what I was excited to have."

The result means Hamilton has moved 28 points clear of chief title rival Vettel in the drivers' championship while Ferrari's non-score, coupled with Valtteri Bottas' recovery to third, has seen Mercedes rocket into a 102-point lead over the Scuderia in the constructors' standings.

"It couldn't be a more perfect scenario really for us, being that we are at a circuit where they [Ferrari and Red Bull] were in another world in hotter, drier conditions and we really had not a lot of hope.

"We really had to just bank on potentially a good start and maybe a bit of strategy, just to get us one or two places. It was going to be one place maybe, or hope for [bad] reliability for another car, but for the rain to fall, I was so happy -- you can't imagine how happy I was."

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