Senna was my idol - Michael Schumacher.

Ferrari number one, Michael Schumacher has reflected on his Monza tears and what it meant to equal Ayrton Senna's record number of wins.

He told the BBC: "You saw what it meant. These emotions got out were because of remembering him."

"He was my idol (when Senna was racing karts). I was 10 years old, and I thought, who is that guy driving so fast and overtaking the way he did."

"I thought he was special. I didn't follow his career. I was not a typical fan of his, but he was very important to me."

"We had our difficult time in the beginning. But in the end we had a lot more respect for each other and then we had the tragedy at Imola."

"So there were many things going through me when I was reminded about this and when I achieved this situation in Monza to be equal with him."

"There is probably only one statistic that counts after winning the championship and that is how many victories you have."

The German concluded: "To be on the level of a person like Senna means a lot to me."