Dennis hails Brazilian GP finish

Hamilton only captured the fifth place he needed to guarantee himself the crown two corners from home - as Toyota's Timo Glock was slowed by a downpour after battling on with dry tyres.

And although it appeared for a few minutes that Hamilton had blown his title chances for the second year running, he recovered brilliantly to become the youngest champion in F1 history.

Dennis was left revelling in the glory of the moment, which ended a victory drought for his team that stretched back to Mika Hakkinen in 1999.

"I don't think there has been a more exciting world champion or world championship as regards the outcome," said Dennis. "It just worked great, didn't it?

"I'm sure lots of people will have lots of opinions, but as far as we are concerned we came here determined to win the world championship and we did it."

Dennis paid tribute to the efforts of his team, who had worked hard in recent weeks to come up with aerodynamic improvements for the final race of the season.

When asked what the title meant for him, Dennis said: "We win as a team and lose as a team. I don't think any individual...obviously Lewis is the world champion but the team has got a lot of depth and they work so hard.

"The developments we brought here give us the ability to pace ourselves. It's very hard to squeeze out of the system. We've improved the car two and a half seconds since Melbourne, as has our competition. At the end of the day it was a very challenging race but a great outcome."

Talking about Hamilton, Dennis said: "If you look at the statistics, he has won more points in the last two years than any other driver. He's won more races than any other driver, he's had more podiums than any other driver. He's the youngest world champion ever.

"He just keeps delivering and, at the end of the day, he's just two years into his career. So there's a long way to go."