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Lewis Hamilton has said that Jules Bianchi's crash at Suzuka during the Japanese Grand Prix last Sunday has brought back painful and "traumatic" memories of witnessing a fellow kart driver die in an accident when he was nine years old.
The world championship leader wrote on his BBC Sport blog that he has been "praying like crazy" for the Marussia driver who remains in a critical but stable condition at the Mie General Medical Centre in Yokkaichi after suffering a diffuse axonal injury in the collision with a tractor during the race.
"When I was nine, I saw a young driver die when I was racing karts," Hamilton wrote. "Even now I can remember standing on the bank beside a track with him with our suits on just before a race, all laughing and joking. And then the next thing I knew I was at his funeral."
Hamilton added that while the ramifications of Bianchi's accident were hard to banish from his thoughts, it had not made him question his desire to continue racing in Formula One.
He remained comfortable in a sport in which he excelled, despite the dangers, he said and the thrill was impossible to replicate doing anything else.
He was sure, he said, that Bianchi as "a real racer" would want the Russian Grand Prix to go ahead just as he would should anything unfortunate happen to him during a race. "He is here with us in spirit," he said.
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