Massa expects Raikkonen to repay title favour

Eurosport.yahoo.com - Thu 04 Sep, 07:54 PM
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (Reuters) - Felipe Massa expects team mate Kimi Raikkonen to return a favour and help him become Formula One world champion if he remains Ferrari's leading driver in the final stages of the season.
Massa starts Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix six points behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and seven ahead of Raikkonen, with five races remaining after Spa. When asked whether he expected the Finn to support his bid to become Brazil's first champion since Ayrton Senna in 1991, should Raikkonen fall further behind, Massa told reporters on Thursday: "If necessary, yes. As I did last year."
"Because of me, my team mate won the championship. He (Raikkonen) is a fair guy and I expect him to do the same for me." So-called 'team orders' are not allowed, but the 27 year-old allowed Raikkonen to pass him to win the final race of last season in Brazil after claiming pole position and leading for most of the race. The Finn's victory saw him claim the title by a single point, ahead of Hamilton and Spain's Fernando Alonso.
Massa won last month's European Grand Prix, his fourth win of the season, but Raikkonen is favourite to win on Sunday and force himself back into contention. He has won the last three Belgian Grands Prix. "I am not going to be less competitive here," Massa said. "I need to have the mentality that I can win the race on Sunday." With rain forecast for Sunday, he dismissed criticism of his disappointing displays in the wet, such as the British Grand Prix performance that saw him spin five times at Silverstone. "I have never had a problem in the rain," he said. "Monaco showed on the wet that I don't have a problem even though people don't look at the lap time," Massa said. "I don't care that people say I can't drive in the rain, because I know I can drive and win in the rain."