Alonso's charge spurred by Senna

FORMULA One championship leader Fernando Alonso has set his sights on matching Ayrton Senna's three world titles.

MOTORSPORT: Formula One championship leader Fernando Alonso set his sights on matching Ayrton Senna's three world titles after equalling his boyhood idol's number of podium finishes.

The Spaniard finished third two weeks ago in Italy to claim his 80th podium spot, putting him level with the late Brazilian legend.

"I feel extremely proud," Alonso said, in the lead-up to this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix. "When you equal some numbers of Ayrton Senna, it's always quite a big thing, especially for me.

"I always followed his races, I had his cars, I had his poster in my room so when you have the same (number of) podiums as him, it's something you can't believe."

But Alonso also said he had a bigger target in mind: clinching his third drivers' title, which would put him level with Senna's wins in 1988, 1990 and 1991.

Alonso leads the championship by 37 points with seven races to go, starting with tomorrow night's race.

"Everything is going well in my career, I feel very well, very happy and I hope to reach more important numbers of Senna," he said with a smile.

However, Alonso acknowledged McLaren was favourite this weekend after winning the past three races, including two for Lewis Hamilton who is second in the standings.

Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen and defending world champion Sebastian Vettel are both within two points of Hamilton, with Red Bull's Mark Webber also within touching distance.

"Everybody's strong at the moment and everybody's a contender," Alonso said.

"Lewis is a strong rival. I've been saying since February that Lewis is the one I respect the most, because I know what he can do with good cars and bad cars, and he's second."

Hamilton is known to favour the tight, challenging Singapore street course, which has 23 turns as it snakes through the city's spectacular harbourfront.

Tomorrow's race will be preceded by a minute's applause for safety pioneer Sid Watkins, who died this month. His innovations are credited with helping keep Formula One free of fatal accidents since Senna's in 1994.

AFP