Raikkonen: perseverance won the title

The Ferrari driver, who at mid-season was 26 points behind then-championship leader Lewis Hamilton, started today's race at Brazil seven points behind the Briton.

But Raikkonen's victory in the season finale, with Hamilton finishing only seventh and Fernando Alonso third, allowed the Finn to clinch the title by one point.

"For sure we were not in the strongest position as some point of the season, (but) we always believed we can recover, we always believed we can do a better job than the others," said Raikkonen.

"Even in hard times we stick together and never give up. We saw at the end that although we were a long way behind, we knew we could win the championship."

Raikkonen thanked his Maranello-based team and paid homage to teammate Felipe Massa, who finished the race in second place after having been out of the championship fight for the last two races.

"I have to thank the team, they did a great job, not just today but all year," Raikkonen said. "We always worked hard and improved the situation, we had perfect team work, we had a hard fight with Massa all year and he was unfortunate not being in the fight any more.

"The sponsors have been a big bonus for us, they have done a great job for us, improving the fuel and everything, for sure I am going to enjoy today. I am very happy."

Raikkonen realized he had a chance to win the title after Hamilton had an off-track excursion on the first lap, but couldn't be sure the championship was in the bag until Hamilton also took the chequered flag.

"I got a very good start, we were side by side with Felipe but we didn't want to race too hard," he explained. "I got past Hamilton and then he went off and I knew we had a chance then.

"We had good speed with the car, taking it easy, saving the car and tyres, we could have gone faster. Perfect work from the team, it paid off very well so thanks very much.

"I wasn't really 100 percent sure, we weren't sure if someone needed to stop in front of Lewis. He was seventh and even though I finished, there were other people who needed to finish, it took a long time to hear I had finally won.

"After the last few races we scored some good points, it has been a good finish to the season, great work for everybody. I am very happy: it was an amazing day."