Lewis Hamilton tried to remain upbeat despite seeing his dreams of being crowned world champion dashed in the final race of the season.

“This was my first year in the world championship and I will come back stronger next year. I have still had a phenomenal year,” he said.

“They [Hamilton’s pit crew] kept telling me I could do it, and I truly believed I could do it. Maybe someone up there doesn’t want me to win the world championship.

He added: "It’s been a crazy year, but I can’t really say that I’m gutted or that I feel I was robbed. It was just unfortunate. We’ve all of us had some bad luck this year; it’s just a shame that mine seemed to come all at the end of it.

"All along I said to myself that, whatever happens today, who would ever have thought that I would lead the world championship? It’s been a great feeling, having the possibility to win it. The team have done a fantastic job for me all season, and of course I wanted to win. But I guess it wasn’t our turn after all this year. But I will come back next year stronger, for sure.

"The start wasn’t that great and I got boxed in behind Kimi, then Fernando came past me and I locked up a bit behind him and lost some ground. But I knew that we had the pace to get that back. But then when I was downshifting for Turn Four the gearbox just went into neutral. And I coasted for an awful long time. I still don’t know how but I managed to coax it back into operation and get going again, but I had to be careful to manage the engine because the revs were very low.

"When that was happening, coming so soon after China, I just found myself thinking that for sure somebody didn’t want me to win the championship!

“Even after that, though, I refused to believe that it was over. The first time I thought that was when I saw the chequered flag. I never stopped thinking it was still possible.

“Our pace wasn’t bad today. Not quite the same as Ferrari’s, but we could have been a little bit quicker with more luck.

"After my mistake in China it was tough to have this luck here, but that’s racing. I’ve gone from GP2 to being ranked second in the world and I have every confidence that in 2008 I will come back even stronger, do an even better job and win. I’ll be better prepared and I have the experience of the whole thing.

“At the end of the day I’m second in the world championship, and I beat my team-mate who is a double world champion. That’s a great result. I said I would be a winner, whatever happened today.

“I think that, apart from the start, I drove one of my best ever races today, so that’s why I say I don’t think I was robbed.”

Lewis Hamilton’s father, Anthony, also tried to put a positive slant on things on what was another bitterly disappointing day for British sports fans.

“We have just had one of the most fantastic Formula One seasons ever,” he said, “and a year ago if you had said that Lewis would be in contention for the title all the way through to the final race, I would have said you were dreaming.

“In the end, we lost by a point, and Lewis will be back. If we don't win it next year, then we will win it the year after that. Lewis Hamilton is here to stay.

“These things are sent to try us, and we will be back in 2008. The team will be stronger and I hope that there will be none of the rubbish that was such a part of 2007.

“I apologise to everyone that we couldn’t do it, but both Lewis and all of us are just so grateful for all the support we have enjoyed this season from the fans and the people who love this sport.

“We can't be unhappy. We have had a great year and we will be back. Winning the title this year would have been a bonus.

“Lewis is not unhappy. He is disappointed, of course, but he is a professional. We had an opportunity to win it, which was fantastic. We are very happy to have finished second. He drove a fantastic race, so he isn't upset. People ask are we happy to have finished second. Well, I can tell you, at the start of the season we would have been happy to finish third!

“It's been such a close season of motor racing, and Lewis will just get stronger. He has behaved with dignity all season, and though he is disappointed not to have won the world championship, he is happy that he drove a great race.”

Kimi Raikkonen’s world title race appeared run two grand prix ago, but the Finn, who win in Brazil to pip the McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, said he had never given up hope.

“We were not in the strongest position at some points in the season, but we always believed we could do a better job than the others,” said Raikkonen.

“We saw in the end, in coming from a long way behind, that you can reduce the gap. There were problems, hard times, but we had perfect team work. The team is very close, and for sure I am very happy.”

Explaining the race, he added: “I had a very good start. I was side by side by Felipe [Massa], but we didn’t want to race too hard.

“It was important we went past [Lewis] Hamilton, and in the end he went off [the track] Then there was perfect team work from the team.

“They’ve been great all year, and now we’ve finally won it, and it’s amazing.”

Massa missed out on a second successive victory from pole, but was delighted for Raikkonen and Ferrari.

“I’m happy for the team and for Kimi - one day I hope it will be me,” he said.

“We’ve had problems this year, including with the spy story, but it’s been a great team effort, and I’m happy to have helped the team to win the championships.”

Outgoing champion Fernando Alonso was magnanimous in defeat as he said: “Congratulations to Kimi, who did a great championship.”

Reflecting on what has been a difficult season, the 26-year-old, who is being tipped with a switch to Renault, added: “There have been ups and down, better moments and worse moments, and I’ve had difficulties.

“We tried to work as hard as we could and we arrived into the last race of the season with a chance, but it was not quite enough.

“I’ve had a fantastic car, a very competitive car, and I’ve learnt a lot this season.”