Hamilton: Kimi a worthy champion

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Hamilton is now focusing on next season's championship after McLaren's appeal into the 'cool fuel' row was deemed inadmissible.

"As I have said all along, Kimi deserved to win the championship," Hamilton said. "Neither I, nor anyone at McLaren, had any desire to take it off him in court. That was not the purpose of the team's appeal. I am now looking forward to the 2008 season and racing Kimi, and all my other rivals, on track."

He added: "Hopefully I'll be able to go one better than the second place I achieved in this year's championship."

McLaren had called into question the decision of the stewards at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix not to punish Williams and BMW Sauber for fuel irregularities.

Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively at Interlagos behind race-winner Raikkonen, with Hamilton seventh.

If the trio had been disqualified, it is conceivable Hamilton could have been promoted up the race classification, and so snatch the crown away from Raikkonen. But the judges ultimately decided McLaren did not have grounds to appeal in the first place, without even looking into the 'cool fuel' argument that had caused the initial controversy.

That has left McLaren baffled, particularly as they have not yet received the full explanation of the decision made by the judges.

McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh is hoping to have at least addressed the issues that came to light at Interlagos to ensure clarity for the future.

He said: "In the interests of rule clarification and rule consistency, we lodged our appeal. We have not yet seen the text of the FIA International Court of Appeal decision, and hope that clarification is provided."