Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton has hit back at Felipe Massa after the Brazilian claimed the Crashgate scandal robbed him of last year's world title.

The Briton pipped Massa to the crown by just a point but the Ferrari driver believes he should be handed the title because the events of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix fix by Renault cost him valuable ground in the championship.

The Brazilian had been comfortably leading the race when the safety car came out following the intentional crash by Nelson Piquet Jr. Massa then pitted with the safety car but a blunder by his Ferrari team led to him finishing outside the points, which ultimately, he argued, had cost him the title.

However, when asked if he felt he had won the world title fairly and squarely, Hamilton said: “I do”.

The McLaren driver said: “It was a tough season and a lot of things happened. There were lots of what ifs throughout the season. But I was a bit surprised to hear him say that as I felt we'd fought a fair battle. I'm shocked to hear him say that in fact.”

Massa, who is battling to return from his horrific head injury in next month's
season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, said governing body, the FIA, were wrong not to overturn the result from Singapore last year and hence the overall championship.

“All of what happened was robbery but, regarding the race, nothing happened,” said the Brazilian.

“The result remains the same. This is not right. The robbery changed the outcome of a championship and I lost.

“I have seen in football how a referee took money to throw a game and all the suspect results were annulled. In Italy, Juventus were relegated. But here they just sent Briatore home. I don't get it and I don't think it was right.”

Jenson Button will succeed Hamilton as champion if he finishes five points ahead of team-mate Rubens Barrichello at Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix. However, both Brawn GP drivers suffered a frustrating time today as rain ruined practice at Suzuka. Button finished 18th during a wet first session and was nearly three seconds slower than McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen, who posted the fastest lap of 1min 40.356sec.

Barrichello, 15 points behind the Briton in the title race, was ninth quickest although the pair ran a fairly meagre 33 laps between them as Brawn GP opted to conserve their energy for the day's second practice.

But that plan backfired as heavy rain wiped out much of the later session with Button, Barrichello and Kovalainen not even bothering to go back out on the sodden track.

Brawn based their decision on the forecast showing that weather is expected to improve for qualifying tomorrow and the race itself.

Button said: “We didn't run in the afternoon because it was very wet and there wasn't any useful running for us to be doing. If it was going to be wet in qualifying and the race we would have done more wet practice. 

“You also have to be careful here as you don't get that many race tyres at a race weekend. This place uses tyres and can damage them quickly.”

Button, whose last victory came at the Turkish Grand Pix in June, added: “There are lots of people here who have not done much running in an F1 dry or no running at all. That's a good thing for me. You just have to hope that we can get a good balance for qualifying straight off.”

The conditions were so bad the fastest time of the second session, set by Force India's Adrian Sutil, was almost seven seconds slower than Kovalainen's.