Felipe Massa is hoping his ’12th man’ will roar him to Formula One world title glory on his home turf in Brazil as the championship race goes down to the wire.

Borrowing a football analogy, Massa feels he is a penalty away from losing his very own World Cup final after yesterday’s Chinese Grand Prix.

The man from Sao Paulo trails leader Lewis Hamilton by seven points after the McLaren star was a convincing pole-to-flag winner at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Massa had to be content with runner-up spot, albeit the position gifted to him by Kimi Raikkonen as the outgoing champion eased up seven laps from home to allow his Ferrari team-mate past.

So now it is on to Interlagos, where Massa will be cheered on by a 100,000-strong partisan crowd, hoping he can become their first champion since Ayrton Senna.

Massa, though, knows he is up against it, and said: “Losing two points does not mean I have lost hope.

“I will continue to fight right to the very end, and I can’t wait to race in Interlagos in front of my home crowd.

“I will try my luck there, where it will be the first time for a Brazilian (going for the title on home soil), which will be a further incentive.

“But I feel a bit like I’m in a penalty shoot-out in the World Cup final. We have already missed the first two shots, while the other team has scored, and now we cannot make any more mistakes and hope that they make three.

“It will be very difficult, but not impossible, as we saw last year.”

That reference is to the fact Raikkonen trailed Hamilton by seven points going into the final race in Brazil, and yet came away with the title.