Felipe Massa has told Lewis Hamilton he will have to respond to his claim that the 2008 F1 world title was unfairly "manipulated" away from the former Ferrari driver.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton claimed his first championship 15 years ago this week when he snatched fifth place on the final lap at Interlagos in one of the sport's most iconic finishes to a title battle.
However, Massa is launching a legal battle to overturn the result based on the Singapore Grand Prix earlier in the season, which the Brazilian led when Nelson Piquet Jr. crashed under team orders to benefit Renault teammate Fernando Alonso.
The incident sparked an investigation which was completed the following year with several punishments dished out to those responsible. But Massa, 42, wants the points won that day cancelled after claiming that FIA bosses knew the race's result, which saw him finish 13th after a bungled pit stop, was a result of the illegal crash.
In August, Mercedes' Hamilton brushed off his former rival's claim and insisted: "I’m not focused on what happened 15 years ago."
A number of other drivers refused to comment ahead of this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix but Massa has called for Hamilton to fully address the matter.
"Everything that we are doing is not against Lewis," he told PlanetF1.
"I mean, I really respect Lewis as a driver for everything that he’s done, he’s one of the best drivers in the history of Formula One. So many records, with many titles.
“But what I’m doing is against the result of a manipulated race. At the point in the race where the manipulation happened, I was leading, I was first in that race. So it’s nothing against Lewis. I really like Lewis as a driver and he’s doing a lot of things for justice, so many different kinds of justice in the world.
"I think, one time, he will need to speak and to talk about the situation.
"I think it’s pretty clear I’m not doing anything against him. I’m doing it against the justice of the sport. When I am at home, and I see my phone after the Bernie Ecclestone interview, after the Charlie Whiting interview in the Max Mosley documentary that he knew at the last race of the season at Interlagos what happened in the Singapore race.
"After my son knew about it, he asked me: 'You are not doing anything?’.
“So I’m doing that for justice. I really believe what I’m doing is correct because this is not acceptable. We’re not talking about a broken engine, or someone pushing me out of the race. We’re not talking about the sporting situation, we’re talking about the manipulation that changed the result.”
