Jonathan Noble: Online

At Interlagos last Sunday we found a new champion. A man who drove brilliantly, did everything that was needed of him in a season when he has truly grown up. He improved immeasurably as a driver and received proper appreciation, plus equally fair criticism, for his on-track exploits.

And, at the end of the most important race of his life, he acted magnanimously. He proved himself the absolute sportsman - honouring his rival, praising his team as he had done every step of the way through the campaign, and accepting the crazy finish to the Brazilian Grand Prix with total honour.

So forget the heartbreak of his engine failure at the Hungarian Grand Prix, the controversy over him being handed victory at Spa - and that moment of over-excitement in the Japanese Grand Prix. Felipe Massa emerged in my eyes as just a big a victor as Lewis Hamilton in Brazil last week.

Felipe Massa crosses the line to win his home Grand Prix © XPB

Unlike his father, and some other members of the Ferrari team in those final seconds of the race, Massa never went through the joy and pain of thinking he was champion and then finding out he was not. He did, however, have several seconds of not knowing who had won the crown as he crossed the line - as he waited for the radio message from race engineer Rob Smedley to let him know just where Hamilton had finished.

It must have hurt when he found out. You could see that as he climbed out the car, went through the post race procedures before emerging on the podium - for what would have been the most disappointing appearance on the top step of his career.

It would have been oh so easy for him to go through the motions - just take the trophy, a few token smiles for the cameras and then off to console himself in private. Yet Massa proved himself a man. He strode to the front of the podium to let the crowd know he appreciated their support; beating his heart to show the fans just what they had meant for him. The despair was etched deep in his tearful eyes - and yet this was no toys out of the pram moment.

Afterwards, as he moved from the television unilateral press conference to the written media press conference, he continued to impress.

"We need to be proud of our job, our race and our championship, and that's why I am here," he said. "I know how to win and I know how to lose. It is one more day of my life and we are going to learn a lot from this day. That's the way it is but for sure I am very emotional."

It is all too easy for drivers these days to gloat and delight when they win, but it is much, much harder to be dignified in defeat. All too often drivers can become spoilt brats when things do not go right. Time and again drivers forced out of races, or losing title battles, have stormed away from circuits immediately - muttering one word answers if forced to explain their feelings.

Felipe Massa salutes the crowd from the podium © LAT

Yes Massa did not do that. He delivered his mantra that he knows how to win and he knows how to lose. And he was right. He was totally honourable in defeat; having driven the race he needed to be champion, and afterwards acting with true dignity.

Team principal Stefano Domenicali certainly thought so, as the Ferrari garage cleared of onlookers who had seen Massa's moving comments post-race.

"I saw in him a great serenity inside because he did the maximum," said Domenicali. "That was really a great day today, from this victory lost you can be strong inside and that will be the case for him."

So while Hamilton left Interlagos as the 2008 title winner, F1 found another champion in Massa. A man now ready to lay to rest the wild man reputation of the past, and set sights on a proper championship in the future.