Lewis Hamilton is hoping to repeat his stunning performance from last year’s Japanese Grand Prix as he aims to increase his lead over Felipe Massa.
The Englishman leads championship rival Massa by only seven points with three races remaining and will be hoping to repeat last season’s heroics.
“I hope we’ll have just as competitive a weekend as we did here last year and I’m sure we’ll be strong,” Hamilton said.
“But it’ll be a tough weekend for all of us and we’ll just have to keep on pushing.
“It was a very eventful race last year. I hope, perhaps, the weather will be better.
“I feel a lot stronger than I was last year at this point of the year. I think there’s going to be a good battle to the last race.”
“I’m looking forward to having a strong weekend and really trying to win the race.” Massa said.
“We’re still seven points behind but we still have 30 points in front of us,” said the 27-year-old Brazilian. A Grand Prix win is worth 10 points.
“For sure, we’re gonna do the best we can to fight until the last lap of the race. I think we still have a big possibility in front of us and we will not give up for sure.”
Raikkonen, another Ferrari driver and 2007 world champion, vowed to help the team overtake McLaren although he stands in fourth place with 57 points in the drivers championship.
“For myself, it’s more or less over,” admitted the 28-year-old Finn. “But we still need the championship for the team. We’ll try to get that one this year again.”
Fellow Finn Kovalainen, sixth with 51 points, said he would try to “do everything we can for the team to maximise the result.”
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