Alonso congratulates 'deserving' Raikkonen

The two-time champion entered the three-way Brazilian GP showdown four points behind rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton and three ahead of Raikkonen.

But the Spaniard's third place finish was not enough to keep the Finn behind in the points, while the Briton could do no better than seventh.

"First of all, congratulations to Kimi," said Alonso. "I said many times who has more points in the last race deserves the championship, so in this case Kimi did a great championship. It was up and down for everyone, at the end he deserves it, so congrats to him."

Despite having had a difficult season at McLaren, with numerous spats with both Hamilton and team boss Ron Dennis, Alonso said he will have good memories from this year and hailed the car he was provided with as being 'fantastic'.

"I think at the end, in other jobs you have up and downs, you have better moments and bad moments. This year I had difficulties with the team, it is no secret, but we tried to work as hard as we could and we arrived at the final race fighting for the championship.

"We finished third, one point behind in the world championship, we had a great car, a fantastic car, (so) even if it was a tough season I have great memories of this season, so I feel comfortable."

Alonso says he expected the Ferraris to dominate the race, so when they ran one-two from the first corner, all he could hope for was for one of them to break down, in order to stand a chance of winning the title.

"I knew it would be very difficult," explained Alonso. "I knew (I had) to take five points from Lewis, because without a problem for Lewis in the race, I knew Ferrari could do one-two, and (that's) not good enough for me.

"At the start I was able to be third, then (it was) impossible to stay with the Ferraris. In the first two or three laps I was keeping the pace with them, I was hoping the pace was just that.

"Obviously we were taking care of the tyres in the first couple of laps, but when they pushed I was not able to keep the pace. It was the same in China, I was keeping the third position and keeping fingers crossed that one of the Ferraris would have trouble, but there was nothing I could do."