Honda team boss Ross Brawn has scotched claims that Ferrari's Felipe Massa would not be a worthy winner of the 2008 title.

The Brazilian driver has had a clearly better year than his struggling teammate Kimi Raikkonen, winning five races compared with the reigning world champion's two.

Massa, 27, is 7 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton with just three races to go, moving some to wonder how the formerly erratic Sauber driver is now knocking on the door of conquering the pinnacle of motor racing.

Former Williams and McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya, now racing in the American NASCAR series, was asked recently whether he thought Massa would be a worthy winner.

"Next question," the Colombian is quoted as saying by the BBC. "We'll skip that one."

But Brawn, who worked with Massa when he was Michael Schumacher's Ferrari teammate in 2006, thinks assessments like Montoya's are not fair.

"I think he would be a worthy world champion," Brawn said. "There is no issue there.

"He has been a bit of a slow grower, really, in that he was quite reckless and made a lot of mistakes early in his career but he was always very quick.

"In the year I worked with him at Ferrari, we had our ups and downs during the year but I think he has performed extremely well. Felipe has come on a long way," Brawn added.

Source: GMM