Mortara aims for celebratory win

The Signature-Volkswagen driver had six wins and one second place to his name in the previous seven Saturday races before this weekend. However, he sealed the 2010 title by finishing a distant sixth, 40 seconds behind race winner Valtteri Bottas.

"To win the championship is amazing, but sixth is a pretty average result," the champion said after the race. "I haven't thought about the title all season, but now I can, and I'm really happy we've done it.

"I'm super disappointed to come sixth today. It's great to win the championship, but I cannot be satisfied. We still have tomorrow's race, and I would like to do something great in that.

"To show that I wasn't thinking about the championship, I started this race with used tyres so that I would have a better chance of winning tomorrow [in the reversed grid race]."

Mortara added that it was special for him to succeed on his return to F3 after a difficult year in GP2 in 2009.

"This is great for me," he said. "After such a disappointing season in 2009, winning Macau at the end of last year was good. But that is just one weekend. You don't need to be fast over a season like we have been this year.

"Apart from this weekend, we've had a pretty complete season so far. We've won races, got pole positions. I have had a great car this year."

Mortara will start third in Sunday's race, behind Carlos Munoz and his closest title challenger this season, Signature team-mate Marco Wittmann.