Fernando Alonso says he is having a 'fantastic' year

Greater Noida: An upbeat Fernando Alonso says Ferrari managed to get the maximum out of his car this season, despite Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel racing away toward the drivers' title.

"This season was fantastic for me again," Alonso said on Saturday after managing just eighth in qualifying for the Indian Grand Prix. "If I look at the classification, to have 107 points, my team-mate (Felipe Massa) having a very good season like this one at 90 points, I think we struck the maximum from the car we have."

But Alonso, who won back to back drivers' titles in 2005 and '06 with Renault and finished second in the standings with Ferrari last year, said the team always expects to do better.

"We didn't work in the best way we could, obviously we started losing slowly," he said. "Sebastian and Red Bull were better than us, especially after July. We fight for the second position in the world championship again, which is obviously sad for us because we always aim to fight for the title."

Despite the dominance of Vettel over the past four seasons, Alonso said he's had the two best seasons of his life.

"It was a very good performance and feeling with the team and with everything in general," the Spaniard said.

Alonso said the aim was for Sunday was to earn enough points from Sunday's race to hold second place in the constructors' standings.

"The strategy is to maximize points for the team and I think Felipe and I want to help the team, and hopefully tomorrow we'll score more points than Mercedes," he said.

While Red Bull is all but assured of claiming this year's constructors' title, much attention has now turned to the fierce tussle for second place between Ferrari, Mercedes and Lotus, who are separated by only 33 points.

"We're there fighting anyway, not with Red Bull but at least with Mercedes," said Massa, who qualified fifth. "Many different things can happen tomorrow. There are many different strategies from drivers, so we'll wait and see how it's going to be. We're fighting for important points in the constructors' championship."