Kubica says third place a good prize

The BMW Sauber driver said goodbye to his slim title chances in the previous race in China and now arrives in Brazil just looking to defend his third position.

Kubica is six points in front of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

Although the Pole said he was disappointed to be out of contention after the previous race, he admits third place is still a good prize.

"The approach is very similar, or even the same as always," Kubica told reporters at Interlagos. "Still it is quite an important race for myself as we are coming for the first time into the last race where I am fighting for quite an important position in the drivers' championship.

"It is not fighting for the win but third place is still quite good, so the approach will be to lose as few points as possible to Kimi and try to defend third position."

He added: "I think it will be a good prize for me, from a personal view. I am quite happy with what I achieved this season. After such a championship finishing fourth will be just a bit of a disappointment. I would prefer to finish third. My way of thinking is that second is the first loser but third will be good."

Kubica, winner of the Canadian Grand Prix, acknowledges his team suffered from the lack of development in the second half of the season.

"As I said, the first half of the season everything was easier for us to fight for the first two rows on the grid, and fight for the podiums," he said.

"The second half of the season there were some races where I think I drove some strong weekends, concentrated on delivering the maximum from the car, and was able to only fight for fourth or fifth.

"Plus we were losing the gap to the leaders in the championship. So it was not the best situation - but still I think we can say finally that this is the last race. We will have a small break and two weeks later we will start preparing for next season in Barcelona."