• Indian Grand Prix

'Better races will come' - Alonso

Fernando Alonso: "We lost points but I think this was more or less the plan this weekend" © Sutton Images

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Fernando Alonso said taking second place at the Indian Grand Prix was part of his game plan in the championship as he hopes Ferrari can up its performance over the final three rounds.

Alonso drove an impressive race from fifth to second in India, finishing 9.4s off championship rival Vettel who led from pole position to the chequered flag. He admitted fighting Vettel was not possible this weekend, but is happy he managed to limit the damage to his title chances with the gap now at 13 points.

"It's not easy at the moment to fight Red Bull but we will never give up," he said. "We are happy today and we have to congratulate them, they were fantastic this weekend. We want to be happy and we want to be fighting them in Brazil so I'm sure we will do it.

"We lost points but I think this was more or less the plan this weekend because we knew we were not fast enough to compete against them. We lost the minimum points by finishing second, but as I said, better races will come."

Alonso passed the McLarens and Mark Webber's Red Bull on the long straight between turns three and four, but while he said the straight-line speed of the Ferrari was good he admitted the car is still lacking in the corners.

"We were quite fast in the straight line but we are still missing a little bit of grip in the corners and hopefully that will come in the next races. We have to thank the team for this fantastic straight-line speed that gave us some good overtaking manoeuvres and some great action."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.