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Massa to Congratulate Hamilton on F1 Title

Felipe Massa recovered well after being only corners from winning the title this year and revealed that he plans to meet his 2008 rival Lewis Hamilton to congratulate him for the championship crown. More, the Brazilian watched the replays of Sunday's race and realized that Hamilton deserved the title despite his struggling performance in the dying laps.

“I want to meet Hamilton and his father to tell them they deserved the title. I re-watched the race on TV: for Lewis that last lap was a drama, he was locking the wheels everywhere as he was trying to recover. Glock didn't let himself be overtaken on purpose,” said Massa in an interview for Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.

Felipe won the Brazilian race after leading it from beginning to end, while Hamilton secured his 5th place in the dying corners of the last lap. When crossing the finish line and with the current positions in the race, the Brazilian was the new F1 champion. However, Toyota's Timo Glock lost almost 20 seconds in the last lap – as he didn't switch to intermediate tires after the rain started – and was caught up by Hamilton less than a kilometer to the finish line, dropping from 4th to 6th overall.

“I did see the overtaking maneuver, but I wasn't thinking of Glock, I though it was a lapped car. I don't know however, if I had enough time to jump up from the armchair, as the truth revealed itself immediately. My pain was for Massa, for what he had done, for his perfect race. But he was strong, good and fair,” admitted Ferrari's CEO Luca di Montezemolo himself when looking back to the dramatic finale in Brazil.

Ferrari will not focus all their efforts on developing next year's car, as the Italian team has fallen way behind implementing the KERS technology on next season's power train. Di Montezemolo will meet Max Mosley later this month – alongside other FOTA representatives – and try to convince the FIA president to delay the introduction of KERS until after 2010. The International Automobile Federation is currently allowing F1 teams to use KERS next year as an optional feature, while imposing it as mandatory starting 2010.
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