With the mantle well and truly passed onto Sebastian Vettel, Michael Schumacher was "proud" to see his compatriot win his second World title.
Dubbed 'Baby Schumi' by the German media at the start of his career, Vettel has risen out from Schumacher's shadow in the last two seasons.
Winning the World title with Red Bull in last year's final race, Vettel made sure he retained his crown with a P3 at Suzuka on Sunday.
"I would like to congratulate Sebastian and his team who have been exceptional the whole year," said Schumacher.
"It is extremely emotional to see him win the Championship again - I am very happy for him and even a little bit proud."
But while all eyes in Germany were on Vettel's performance, Schumacher had a great race of his own, even leading for a few laps before his final pit stop dropped him down to sixth.
"I'm very happy with what we achieved in Suzuka today as we maximised our potential of the car, and managed to put in a good race," said the Mercedes GP driver.
"The team did a great job the whole weekend in finding performance and transforming it into the race.
"I think there was not more to expect and achieve. The pit stops were perfectly timed and everything worked out according to plan."
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