Felipe Massa at a training session at the Catalunya racetrack in Montmelo on Thursday

London: Formula One will be badly damaged if “grubby” legal manoeuvring leads to Kimi Raikkonen losing his title to McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in a courtroom, Ferrari’s lawyer said on Thursday.

“It would be a serious injustice to Mr Raikkonen were the championship to be taken away from him,” Nigel Tozzi told a hearing of the governing FIA’s independent International Court of Appeal.

McLaren were appealing against the action of stewards at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix in failing to punish BMW Sauber and Williams for using fuel that was apparently cooler than the rules allow.

If the three drivers concerned are disqualified, Hamilton could be promoted from seventh to fourth in the race — handing the 22-year-old British rookie the points needed to overhaul Raikkonen and become Formula One’s youngest champion.

The Finn beat Hamilton by a single point at the end of the 17-race season. A decision by the four judges will be announced in Paris on Fri- day.

“It would be highly damaging for the sport if the title were to won this way with the fans probably feeling it was more about grubby manoeuvring by the lawyers than by skill behind the wheel,” said Tozzi.

“As McLaren have always said, the championship should be decided on the racetrack and not in the courtroom.”

Tozzi said comments by McLaren bosses that they were not appealing in order to win the title through the back door but for clarification of the rules should either be taken at face value or be seen as the words of “shameless hypocrites devoid of any integrity”.