Lead-lost Alonso vows to fight
2012-10-15 07:18
UPBEAT ALONSO LOOKS FORWARD TO FOUR MORE: Alonso has put his third place finish in South Korea behind him, confident he can still walk away with the Driver's F1 title for 2012.
Author: ALAN BALDWIN
YEONGAM, South Korea - Ferrari's Fernando Alonso lost his lead in the Formula 1 championship but still found positives to take away from a 2012 Korean GP dominated by Red Bull rival Sebastian Vettel.
Alonso had spun out at the start in Japan earlier in October, his second blank in four races after being rammed out in the first turn by Lotus's French driver Romain Grosjean in Belgium.
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Third place at South Korea's Yeongam circuit in a race won comfortably enough by Vettel left Alonso six points behind the former, with four races remaining, after starting the day four points clear.
The Ferrari driver, certainly far happier-looking than a week earlier, said: "If we think how it went for us in the last four or five races .. being six points behind leaves open a lot of possibilities."
One of the final four races is the US GP at a new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, that will be new to all the drivers.
India, which made its debut in 2011 when Vettel won, will be next, followed by Abu Dhabi.
Alonso qualified fourth on Saturday in Korea but gained a place at the start and, while never threatening the Red Bulls, his strong performance and a fourth place by Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa lifted Ferrari to second in the Constructors' standings ahead of McLaren.
The Spaniard hoped for new parts in India, the next race, and was far from downcast. "We seem to extract the maximum from the car when we are under pressure and there are four beautiful races to come with good possibilities for us to fight for the championship," he told reporters.
"Now we need to score seven points more than Sebastian. That will be extremely tough but we believe we can do it."
