F1: Alonso Keeps Himself In Title Race

Formula 1

F1: Alonso Keeps Himself In Title Race

Fernando Alonso finished a strong third in Austin, gaining four spots from his grid position...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted November 18, 2012 Austin, TX

Fernando Alonso rounded out the podium at Austin. (Image: SPEED)

Fernando Alonso kept the championship battle alive heading to Brazil by finishing a superb third in Austin, and losing only three points to title rival Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso is now 13 points behind, so whatever happens to the Red Bull driver, he has to finish in the top three.

Alonso started the race from seventh and immediately jumped up to fourth place.

“Our championship keeps alive maybe thanks to the first laps,” said Alonso. “We always qualify around seventh or eighth, and we finish the first lap in the first three or four positions normally, and then after that, the race becomes a little easier when that happens, when you are in the leading group.

“And today we knew that was a good chance, try to overtake people at the first corner, and then the pace on Sunday normally improves, so we knew that if we are in the leading group we can more or less keep the pace.

“I think this podium, after all the difficulties we went through this weekend, is like a victory for us. Losing three points maybe was in no one’s thoughts, I think, yesterday night, or Friday night after seeing the practice, so we are really happy again to have a very good Sunday and score again good points.”

Alonso remains upbeat about his championship chances.

“We will try to go to Brazil with the possibility to fight for the World Championship which is something that we fight for all through the year, and we arrived in that fantastic position,” the Spaniard said.

“Only Sebastian is in a better position than us, but we should be proud of ourselves, so try to enjoy the Brazil race and do our best, fight all the race and see what is the outcome at the end.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.

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