Hamilton - I won 2008 title fair and square

Lewis Hamilton was taken aback to hear Felipe Massa's claim that he was robbed of last year's World Championship as a direct consequence of Renault fixing the result of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Massa was leading Formula One's inaugural night race when Nelson Piquet Jnr's deliberate crash forced the deployment of the safety car and the Brazilian dived into the pits to refuel, only for Ferrari to botch the stop after they left the refuelling hose attached to his car as he left the pit box.

Piquet's team-mate Fernando Alonso won the race, with Massa finishing well down the field and he eventually lost out on the title by a single point to Hamilton.

The 28-year-old, who is recovering from an horrific accident in Hungary, claimed in an interview that Piquet's intervention had ultimately cost him the drivers' crown, stating: "Everything that happened was robbery but nothing has happened to the race. The result didn't change. This is not right. The robbery changed the championship. I lost by one point."

Hamilton, however, rejected that notion, insisting it had been a fair fight to the end.

The Englishman said: "I'm shocked to hear him say that because I've always felt him a fair driver and he knows that we had a fair battle right to the end, at least that's how I saw it.

"It's good to hear that he's recovering well and he's back on his feet and back to his normal self and feeling good.

"All we can say is that it was a tough season, things happened.

"There were lots and lots of 'what-ifs' throughout the season so I'm a bit surprised to hear him say that because I thought we had quite a fair battle and I won it fair and square, so it doesn't matter to me what he said."