Ayrton Senna, Forumla 1 Legend And Three Times World Champion (GALLERY)

GALLERY: Three-Times F1 World Champion Ayrton Senna

Eighteen years ago, Williams Forumla One driver Ayrton Senna died at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

The Brazilian, three times F1 World Champion, entered the high-speed Tamburello corner on lap 7, but his Williams car left the track at around 205mph and hit the concrete retaining wall at around 135mph.

He was declared dead hours later at Bologna's Maggiore Hospital, a day after Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger perished during qualifying.

Senna's success in the sport occasionally lifted the darkness which loomed over his country during impoverished times. Three days of national mourning were declared after he died, and an estimated three million people flocked to the streets of his hometown of São Paulo to pay their respects.

Aged 34 when he passed away, Senna's legacy and life-story is one of the most colourful in any sport. He was immortalised outside of Brazil courtesy of Asif Kapadia's superb 2010 documentary.

In tribute to one of F1's greatest ever drivers, here's a gallery of his life and times behind the wheel:

Senna

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