Bruno Senna

Infobox racing driver
name = Bruno Senna Lalli

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pixels = 220px
caption =
nationality = flagicon|Brazil Brazilian
date of birth = Birth date and age|1983|10|15
place of birth = São Paulo (Brazil)
related to = Ayrton Senna
current series = GP2 Series
first year = 2007
current team = iSport International
car number = 2
former teams = Arden International
starts = 41
wins = 3
poles = 3
fastest laps = 1
best finish = 2nd
year = 2008
prev series = British F3 Championship
prev series years = 2005-2006
titles =
title years =
awards =
award years =

Bruno Senna Lalli (born October 15 1983 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian racecar driver and the nephew of late three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna. His mother is Ayrton's sister, Viviane. His father died in a motorcycle crash in 1995.

Career

Early career

When leaving McLaren at the end of F1|1993, Ayrton Senna had said: "If you think I'm good, just wait until you see my nephew Bruno". Bruno raced go-karts against Ayrton on the family farm, and it was clear that Ayrton regarded his nephew's potential very highly. Ayrton's tragic death while driving a Williams at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, however, brought Bruno's own racing career to an abrupt halt.

At Imola in 2004, however, on the 10th anniversary of his uncle's death, Senna was given an example of his uncle's 1986 Lotus 98T as a gift from an Italian friend. Senna drove the car at the 2004 Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix in São Paulo, at Interlagos, where Ayrton had won in 1991 and 1993.

Ayrton's McLaren team mate of the 1990-1992 seasons, Gerhard Berger is a close friend of the Senna family and has advised Senna on his career. Senna's sister, Bianca, meanwhile, has managed his affairs and sponsorship acquisition.

By 2005, after just five races in British Formula BMW and Formula Renault he moved on to the British Formula Three International Series. His results included three podium finishes in the last seven races of the season, all achieved driving for the Räikkönen Robertson Racing team owned by then-McLaren Formula One driver Kimi Räikkönen and his business managers David and Steve Robertson.

2006: British F3

In 2006, Senna competed in the Formula Three support races at the 2006 Australian Grand Prix, winning three of the four races [http://www.crash.net/news_view~t~Senna-repeats-Oz-F3-triumph-~cid~11~id~127625.htm] [http://www.formula1.com/news/4188.html] .He also entered a full season in the British F3 International Series with Räikkönen Robertson Racing finishing the season in 3rd place with 269pts and 4 wins. He won the opening two races of the series at Oulton Park in the wet. He again won the first race at Donington Park and then won the second race at Mugello in Italy, again in the wet.

On May 28th Senna made his first appearance on Monaco circuit, as a guest in the Porsche Supercup event. Unfortunately, he was forced to retire at the first corner because of a clutch failure.

Senna had a massive crash, during the first race of round 5 of the series at Snetterton. On lap 2, he and Hitech Racing's Salvador Durán clashed wheels on the Revett Straight (the fastest straight in Britain [ [http://www.motorsportvision.co.uk/snetterton/circuits/snetterton.asp Snetterton website] ] ) at nearly 150 mph. Senna's car took off just before the bridge, and may have even clipped it, while cartwheeling through the air. [page 72, "Autosport" magazine - July 20, 2006] His car landed violently and careered along and down the safety barrier for some distance, but Senna walked away. His car however was damaged beyond immediate repair and Senna missed out on the second race of the day.On the rear wing of the car he had advertised the [http://www.senna.com.br Ayrton Senna Foundation web page] .

In October 2006 he appeared in an eight-part weekly series called "Vroom Vroom" on British TV station Sky One. Each week he would drive a different car being tested on the show, as quickly as possible, to the top of a multi-storey car park.

2007-2008: GP2

In October 2006 Senna was said to be targeting a seat on the Formula One grid by F1|2009. [cite news | url = http://www.manipef1.com/news/2006/index.php?id=1773 | title = Senna targets F1 for 2009| publisher = Manipe F1 | date = 2006-10-30 | accessdate = 2007-02-07] He signed to drive for the Red Bull-sponsored Arden International team for the 2007 GP2 Series. He finished 4th on his debut at Bahrain and soon after scored his first win in the feature race in Spain. In the single race Monaco event, Senna struggled owing to poor tyres.

During the four week break in the GP2 series between the Monaco and French races, Senna took part in the third round of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli European series at Silverstone on June 9 and 10, 2007. Driving an F430 on a weekend devoted to the 60th anniversary of Ferrari, Senna won both races, starting each from pole. The purpose of this involvement was to gain a better understanding of the circuit, which is on the GP2 calendar.

At Silverstone, a mistake during qualifying on the Friday meant Senna started 26th and last. After a great start Senna was able to finish a brilliant 11th in the feature race. The sprint race was not any better in terms of points with a 10th place finish. A poor qualifying session at the Nurburgring for the Feature race meant Senna started 16th but was up to 9th after a cleverly timed first pit stop. However he was given a drive-through penalty after being involved in a collision with Adam Carroll and ended up finishing a poor 15th. The Sprint race ended on the first lap after a collision. At Hungary for both races, Senna finished out of the top ten after struggling with the set-up of the car. The Feature race in Turkey brought another poor result, however Senna finished a fighting sixth for the Sprint race and came with it his first points since France. At Monza Senna finished a superb 4th after starting fourteenth. Starting fifth for the Sprint race Senna had an excellent start by moving up to second, however after contact with Luca Filippi resulted in bent steering Senna managed to finish a fine third and on the podium for the first time since France in July. At Spa Senna showed raw pace through practice and set the third fastest time early on during Qualifying for the Feature race. However a stall on the grid meant he started 22nd and while fighting to make up ground he got a bit of oversteer and then the camber changed, ending his day in the tyre barrier. Starting at the back of the grid for the Sprint race, Senna finished eighth leaving Belgium pointless. At the season finale in Valecia Spain, Senna ended the Feature race with a DNF and thus starting the Sprint race from 19th could only manage to finish 14th. This was a positive season on the whole for Senna finishing in the top 10 in only his third full year of single seater racing, with one win and three podiums.

Senna switched teams for the 2008 season, moving to iSport International where his team-mate will be Karun Chandhok. [cite news| title =Chandhok and Senna sign for iSport
publisher =autosport.com| url =http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/64436| date =2007-12-19| accessdate =2007-12-19] He also drove for the team in the 2008 GP2 Asia Series.

In the second round of the season at Istanbul Senna collided with stray dog during the sprint race. The suspension of Senna's car was damaged in the incident, causing him to retire. Senna himself escaped without injury, while the dog died in the incident.

Senna won the GP2 Feature race at Monte Carlo, the first time in 15 years since the Senna name has shown at the top of the leaderboards at the principality. It also moved Senna to 1st position in the 2008 GP2 standings. As of the British rounds of the GP2 championship, Senna was in 2nd place: a position he held to the end of the season behind champion Giorgio Pantano.

Racing record

Complete GP2 Series results

() (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in "italics" indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

() (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in "italics" indicate fastest lap)

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.brunosenna.co.uk/ Official site]
* [http://www.crash.net/news_view~t~Senna-uninjured-in-huge-Snetterton-shunt-~cid~11~id~133926.htm Pictures of Bruno's car on the Crash.net website]
* [http://www.driverdb.com/racingdriver2184.html Career details]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7509591.stm BBC Sport 'Meet the New Senna' 16 July 2008]