Fernando Alonso needs a clean start and a chance to pass, or pile the pressure on, Sebastian Vettel if he is to keep alive his title challenge in Sunday’s Indian Grand Prix.

The 31-year-old Spaniard, who qualified third on the grid alongside his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa, will start the race six points behind championship leader and defending champion Vettel in the title contest.

But with just four races remaining, he faces an uphill struggle if he cannot break Red Bull’s current domination – on Saturday they locked out the front row of the grid for the third straight race.

German Vettel, 25, took his 35th career pole ahead of team-mate Australian Mark Webber.

Alonso, who has seen his once comfortable 42-points lead turned into a six points deficit, said: “Tomorrow we need to overtake McLaren as soon as possible and put pressure on Red Bull to wait for a little mistake, a pit stop problem, reliability or something.

“If they (Red Bull) can start, go away and have an easy race, that’s the worst news for us.

“At the moment we are not fighting against Sebastian only — we are also fighting against (Red Bull designer and technical director, Adrian) Newey, let’s say – they finished first or second in the last four races.

“It is not so easy to fight, especially on Saturday, but on Sunday we are normally more competitive.”