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Kimi vows to support Massa to the end

Raikkonen ChinaKimi Raikkonen has pledged his support to team mate Felipe Massa ahead of the season finale in Brazil next weekend.

Massa is seven points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton and can only win the title if the McLaren driver finishes fifth or worse and even then the Brazilian must win the race himself.

Despite paddock whispers that Raikkonen would rather see Hamilton win the title than have to share his Ferrari garage with a world champion next year, the Finn has vowed to support Massa right down to the wire.

“Once you don’t fight for the title any more, it doesn’t make a difference if I come in second or third, as long as the points for Ferrari remain the same,” conceded Raikkonen.

“I’d be glad if I could do something for Felipe, that he can win the title and Ferrari will be again victorious in the constructors’ championship in the last race of the season.”

Raikkonen, who was crowned champion in Brazil last year after closing a seventeen point gap to Hamilton, is confident that Ferrari have the pace to defend their eleven point lead over McLaren in the constructors championship.

“We’ll try to repeat our 1-2 from last year and then we’ll calculate the outcome of the standings and see where we are in the two championships.”

“I’ll have the same approach as in the last two races – the qualifying will be fundamental and it would be nice to start from the front row once more.”

“The best part of the two races in Japan and China is that I was competitive in qualifying again. The car behaves the way I like it and that’s why I managed to start from the front row at Fuji and at Shanghai.

“I was glad to be back on the podium, I needed a good final stage of the season. The positive end gives me the possibility of a good winter and a good starting point for the next season.”

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