Viviane Senna presents Hamilton with his Autosport award

"He reminds me of Ayrton as a pilot [driver] and also as a good man - we can see this in his eyes and his face," Viviane Senna said of the Englishman.

She was in London to present Hamilton with two of his trophies at the prestigious Autosport Awards.

"I'm a bit speechless. Ayrton was such a big part of my life," Hamilton said.

"I was always watching his videos and I never imagined I'd get to meet someone so close to him."

Hamilton made a reference to his first appearance at the Autosport Awards in 1995 - when as a 10-year-old aspiring karter he walked up to his current McLaren F1 team boss Ron Dennis and told him he wanted to drive for his team one day.

Senna, a former McLaren driver, had been killed in a crash during the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994, and Hamilton said: "I was really disappointed when I missed him in 1995, just a year too late."

Viviane Senna presented Hamilton with the awards for International Racing Driver of the Year and British Competition Driver.

He was handed the Rookie of the Year award by former world champion Damon Hill.

Hamilton ended the season as the most successful rookie in F1 history, and missed out on the title by just one point from Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

McLaren, who were fined $100m (�48.6m) and excluded from the constructors' championship for possessing confidential Ferrari technical information, won the International Racing Car of the Year Award.