Raikkonen: Title is justice

But for a few hours, doubts were raised when stewards investigated BMW Sauber and Williams for a fuel irregularity. Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld could all have been thrown out, so elevating Hamilton to fourth and giving him the title, but in the end they opted to impose no penalty.

Looking back on the spy saga that saw McLaren stripped of all constructors' points, but the drivers avoid a penalty, Raikkonen said: "I think there is some kind of justice. It is so difficult to say. It is such a complicated situation. But now it has been decided we should put it behind us and there is no point in thinking about it any more."

He added: "It's a different story from racing, so it is not a nice thing. Unfortunately it was a big thing this year, and so let's hope it doesn't happen again in future."

Team-mate Felipe Massa was also ebullient, adding: "I think it is another victory for us.

"It was a big story involving many things during the whole season, many negative things. I think this is a very positive thing that we won on the track, and also that we beat the problems that we had."

Raikkonen can certainly thank Massa for winning his first title as an all-too-obvious pit-stop strategy worked perfectly in the Finn's favour.

"It was pretty clear the team were fighting for the championship and it was not going to be me who would stop that," added Massa, ultimately denied a second successive win in front of his home crowd.

"So I was playing the game and trying to help the team if possible. We talked beforehand that the only way for Kimi to win the championship was that Lewis would have to be out of the top six.

"If that was the case and the team needed my support, I would be very happy to help, and that's what I did."