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Hamilton hints at 'Senna-style' revenge

MONTE CARLO, Monaco - Lewis Hamilton has hinted that he may inflict 'Senna-style' revenge on his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg at the 2014 Monaco GP  as payback for the controversial pole-claiming  performance in qualifying on Saturday (May 24).

Race stewards are holding a lengthy investigation into the authenticity of a mistake made by Rosberg which evidently incensed Hamilton.

Hamilton , who has always held an emotional fascination with three-time champion Ayrton Senna, suggested he may copy one of his idol's moves.

SENNA, PROST BATTLE

Asked to compare his currently strained relationship with his team mate and closest championship rival Rosberg with the infamous rivalry at McLaren of Senna and Alain Prost, Hamilton said he was thinking of taking his own action.

When a BBC reporter asked: "Are you even more like Senna and Prost now?" Hamilton replied: "Essentially."

Then asked if he would sit down (with Rosberg) and "sort it out." Hamilton said: "I don't know if Senna and Prost sat down and talked it out. I quite like the way Senna dealt with it, so I'm going to take a page out of his book."

It was not clear what Hamilton was referring to but Senna deliberately drove Prost off the circuit in one infamous Japanese GP in 1990 when their relationship had deteriorated beyond repair.

During the 2014 Monaco qualifying session, Rosberg, who is three points behind Hamilton after five races in the drivers' championship, lost control of his car on his final flying lap and went off down the escape road at Mirabeau, prompting waved yellow flags to slow down the rest of the field behind him.

This resulted in Hamilton's lap being wrecked. He had to ease off - despite being slightly faster than Rosberg at that stage - and abandon his bid to improve his time.

He qualified second to share the front row with Rosberg who claimed his sixth career pole.

The incident came eight years after seven-time champion Michael Schumacher was stripped of pole position after race stewards decided that he had stopped deliberately after running wide at the Rascasse corner in his Ferrari.

Schumacher retired, but came back to race again for Mercedes whose non-executive chairman Niki Lauda dismissed any suspicions surrounding Rosberg's actions.

In 2006, the stewards' inquiry lasted eight hours.

'THESE THINGS HAPPEN'

Asked if he felt the incident appeared to be deliberate, Lauda said: "No, not at all. If you look at it the way I look at it, he tried to go quicker, braked too late, the right front wheel locked, tried to go into the corner and not to crash he had to go left.

"So this is very simple to explain....These things can happen. They happen to a lot of other people but there's nothing wrong about it."

He added that the two Mercedes drivers may need to talk things over after 48 hours during which tensions between them have mounted following a series of reports about their rivalry and differences.

"I think there might be some more discussions later today or tomorrow morning, I agree this thing is building up over there, but from my point of view here is nothing wrong on Nico's side.

"Lewis was now four or five times quicker than Nico and now Nico's quicker so what is wrong about that."

Rosberg said he was "surprised" that the stewards had launched an investigation.

He said: "They'll see in the data it is all very similar to the lap before and I just locked up the front tyre."

2014 Monaco Grand Prix at Circuit de Monaco:

Qualifying
Third practice
Second practice
First practice

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