Motor racing-Hamilton revives memories of Senna even in defeat

By Alan Baldwin MONACO, May 24 (Reuters) - Even in defeat, on the most famous Formula One circuit of them all, Lewis Hamilton revived memories of his great hero and serial Monaco winner Ayrton Senna. On his slowing-down lap, after a certain victory had been cruelly snatched from his grasp by a pitstop blunder, the Briton stopped his Mercedes at the Portier corner before the tunnel entry. It might have been simply to collect his thoughts before plunging into the media maelstrom further down the road, taking a moment's reflection with the shimmering Mediterranean stretching ahead of him. But the corner was also the one closest to his Monaco apartment. Those of a different generation, and in the know, will have recalled the 1988 Monaco race where Senna crashed his McLaren after early domination from pole. So angry was the great Brazilian, whose team mate Alain Prost won that day, with the mistake that he stormed straight home and shut the door. Few would have blamed Hamilton, even though he still finished on the podium, had he done the same after coming in for a needless change of tyres while leading behind the safety car after a dominant 64 laps. When he re-emerged, his lead had gone and there was no way back even on fresher tyres. Hamilton was third with team mate Nico Rosberg becoming the first driver since Senna to win three Monaco Grands Prix in a row. The hurt was evident afterwards, once Hamilton had finally parked up at the finish, and he kept his answers short. "I can't really express the way I feel at the moment. So I won't even attempt to," he said. "You rely on the team. I saw a screen, it looked like the team was out and I thought that Nico had pitted. Obviously I couldn't see the guys behind so I thought the guys behind were pitting. "The team said to stay out. I said "these tyres are going to drop in temperature", and what I was assuming was that these guys (Rosberg and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel) would be on options and I was on the harder tyre. So, they said to pit. "Without thinking I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same." Senna won Monaco six times, including five in a row. Hamilton has won just once so far. "This is a race that has been very special... close to my heart for many years and so it was very important," he said. "Today, I didn't really have to push too much, I could have doubled the lead if I needed it." (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)