Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TEARS FOR MY HERO
Emotional Hamilton will race for the first time at the track that claimed Senna’s life
LEWIS HAMILTON is braced for an emotional weekend at the circuit where his hero Ayrton Senna was killed.
Imola will always be remembered for the dark weekend in May 1994 when Brazilian triple champion Senna and Austrian Roland Ratzenberger died.
Senna l o st c ontro l of hi s Williams (below) at the notorious Tamburello corner and slammed into a concrete wall at 140mph, just 24 hours after Ratzenberger was killed in qualifying.
Exactly 26 years and six months later, Hamilton will race at the track which claimed the life of his childhood hero for the first time tomorrow.
The Briton visited memorials to Senna on a trip to the Italian circuit y e s t e r d a y, a n d said: “Obviously, the history of
1994 is something we always remember.
“I went around and it was a really special lap, just going round and seeing this historic track, passing the harsh reminder of where Ayrton crashed.
“It is very surreal still for me when I go to places where you drive through the tunnel in Monaco, you drive through the British Grand Prix, where you know that the greats in the past had raced at those places.
“Earlier on I was in an area that, many years ago, Ayrton was here doing what he loved, as I am.
“So in one way t h a t ’s heartwarming, to know that I was able to be here and do what he was doing 26 years ago.”
Hamilton was just nine when
Senna was killed and burst into tears as hi s father Anthony informed him of the devastating crash.
Recalling the tragedy, he said: “I was racing at Rye House in karting. My dad had a red Vauxhall Cavalier and we had a white box trailer with a gas heater shoved at the deep end of the trailer and I was helping my dad fix the kart, changing the wheel.
“I think I was helping to do the bolts up on the rear wheel of my cadet kart.
“I don’t know how he got the news but someone told him that Ayrton had died and I remember I had to walk away from my dad because he would never let me cry in front of him. So I had to go to a different place and it was not so easy.
“I remember trying to channel that sadness into my driving and I think I won that weekend . But the following weeks were very tough.”