Fernando Alonso pointed out Red Bull’s performance advantage after qualifying fifth for the Indian Grand Prix.

He told reporters after qualifying his battle is as much against Red Bull’s chief technical officer Adrian Newey as title rival Sebastian Vettel.

“At the moment I am or, or we are not, fighting against Sebastian only,” said Alonso, “we are fighting against Newey, let’s say, because they are first and second in the last four* races.

“So it’s not so easy at the moment to fight especially on Saturday. On Sunday normally we are a little bit more competitive.

“So tomorrow we need to overtake Mclaren as soon as possible and put some pressure on the Red Bull to wait for some little mistake from them or pit stop problem or reliability or something because if they can start and go away and have an easy race that will be the worst news for us.”

Alonso said he couldn’t realistically expect to qualify any higher for the race: “I think this is our normal position at the moment behind Red Bull and McLaren.

“Even if it looks disappointment I think it’s our normal position at the end of the day you have to do it because Force India, Kimi [Raikkonen] they were quite fast so you can end up eighth or ninth very quickly.

“So fifth at at the end of the day is our position and a good starting position for tomorrow’s fight.”

*Red Bull have been first and second on the grid for the last three races.

2012 Indian Grand Prix

Image ?�?� Red Bull/Getty images