Kimi Raikkonen said he never gave up hope of winning the world championship even when the McLaren drivers appeared to be running away with the title fight.

The Finn had been 26 points behind Lewis Hamilton at the season's halfway point - and was still 17 points adrift going into the final two races.

But a pair of victories for Raikkonen combined with Hamilton's double disasters in China and Brazil to allow the 'Iceman' to overturn that deficit and snatch the title by a single point at Interlagos this afternoon.

"For sure we were not in the strongest position at some points of the season," said Raikkonen.

"But we always believed that we could recover, that we could do a better job than the others, and even with the hard times everybody was sticking together and we didn't give up.

"It was good, we saw that even from a long way behind we could reduce the gap and win the championship - not just the constructors' but also the drivers'.

"I need to thank the team, they did a great job - not just today, but all the year.

"There were some hard times, there were some problems, but we always worked hard and improved the situation."

Raikkonen, who trailed Hamilton by seven points coming into the Brazilian Grand Prix, said he knew his chances had been boosted when he passed Hamilton off the line and then saw the McLaren slide wide at the Descida do Lago moments later.

"I got a very good start actually to go side by side with Felipe (Massa), but we knew that we didn't want to really race against each other too hard," he said.

"The main thing was to get past Hamilton.

"Then I saw in the mirrors in corner four that he went off, and I knew that then maybe we had some chance."

The Ferrari pair proceeded to dominate the race - dropping third-placed Fernando Alonso with ease.

"We had very good speed in both cars - we were just taking it easy and saving the tyres and the cars," Raikkonen said.

"We could have gone much faster."

He paid tribute to team-mate Massa, who led until the final pit stops, when Raikkonen ran three laps further and emerged in front.

"We had perfect teamwork this year, with Felipe helping all the time," said Kimi.

"I had a very hard fight with him all year, but unfortunately he had some races not scoring and couldn't be in the fight anymore."

While Hamilton always looking unlikely to achieve the fifth place he required to prevent Raikkonen from snatching the championship, the Finn said he didn't relax until all the cars had crossed the line and he knew for certain that Lewis had only reached seventh.

"I wasn't really 100 percent sure because I wasn't sure if somebody would stop in front of Lewis when he was seventh," Raikkonen said.

"He finished and I finished, but there were people who needed to finish before I could be certain.

"I was just really waiting and it took a long time to hear that we finally won it.

"I'm very happy - it's an amazing, amazing day."