(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-22 09:39

SAO PAULO - Kimi Raikkonen never gave up his dream of winning the Formula One world championship even when all the odds seemed stacked against him.

Ferrari Formula One Champion Kimi Raikkonen of Finland with the General Manager of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Jean Todt and McLaren Formula One driver Fernando Alonso of Spain on the Podium after the Brazilian F1 Grand Prix at the Interlagos racetrack in Sao Paulo Sunday Oct. 21, 2007. Raikkonen kept his cool better than Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, winning the Brazilian Grand Prix and clinching the Formula One title in the tightest race for the championship in 21 years. [Agencies]

Ferrari's 28-year-old Finnish 'Iceman', twice before a runner-up in the title standings with his former team McLaren, finally reaped the rewards on Sunday with victory in the Brazilian season-ender.

After trailing McLaren's Lewis Hamilton by 17 points before the previous Chinese Grand Prix, Raikkonen took the maximum score from the last two races of the season to emerge as champion by a single point.

"For sure we were not in the strongest position at some parts of the season but we always believed that we could recover, that we could do a better job than the others," he said.

"Even in hard times everybody was sticking together and we didn't give up."

The Finn, whose love of partying is as well-documented as his monosyllabic approach to the media, paid tribute to his team and said he would not let the success change him or his lifestyle.

"It's not going to really change my life too much," he told a news conference.

BIG PARTY

"People will probably try to make up more stories about me but I'm not going to change myself, I never did before and it's not going to happen in the future.

"I lead my life as I want and that's it.

"For sure, we are going to have a big party, not just here but next week...it's been a long season and it's hard to realise that we finally did it after many years.

"It was not really in our mind to be a world champion because I was so far away," said Raikkonen, who recognised that his luck had finally turned after all the disappointments of the past.

The Finn, who stepped into retired seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher's shoes this season after five years with McLaren, echoed his German predecessor in saying the Italian team felt like a family to him.

"I enjoy every moment with the team," said the first driver since the late Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio to win the championship in his first season with Ferrari.

"I have enjoyed Formula One much more this year than I enjoyed the last few years, for many reasons -- not because of the driving, but for some other reasons.

"I'm more than happy to win the championship with Ferrari, especially in the first year with the team.

"It is such a nice big family, great people to work for. I'd rather win with them than anyone else," added Raikkonen, whose victory at Interlagos was his sixth of the year.

The triumph came at the end of one of the emotionally-charged and controversial of seasons, with Ferrari winning the constructors' championship after McLaren were stripped of all their points for a spying scandal.

Asked whether he felt beating McLaren's 22-year-old rookie Lewis Hamilton and double champion Fernando Alonso to the title was a sort of justice, Raikkonen hesitated.

"I think so, maybe yes," he said.