Dominant Vettel secures fourth straight victory to close on F1 title

(CNN) -- Sebastian Vettel closed on his third straight F1 world title with a dominant drive to win the Indian Grand Prix for Red Bull Sunday.

The 25-year-old German was claiming his fourth consecutive victory in this year's championship and the 26th of his career.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso showed his famed fighting qualities to take second place, limiting his losses in the title race, but he still trails Vettel by 13 points with three races to go.

Vettel's teammate Mark Webber held off a fast finishing Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren for third place.

But all the focus was on the leading pair and Vettel is fully aware that his main rival will still be a factor in the concluding races.

India's F1 story

"Yes, maybe I have one hand on the trophy, if you say so, but on the other side, I think Fernando has one hand on it too!" he told the official post-race media conference.

"It is not easy to fight Red Bull but we will never give up," said Spain's Alonso.

"We lost points, but this is what we expected this weekend as we are not fast enough, but we lost minimum points and there will be better races to come," he added.

Vettel took control of the race from pole at the Buddh International Circuit, while Alonso worked his way from fifth on the grid to third in the early stages as he moved past the McLaren pair of Hamilton and Jenson Button.

Alonso was able to take advantage of late technical problems for Webber to overtake the Australian for second place, but was still nearly 10 seconds adrift of Vettel by the finish.

Button drove a solid race for fifth, with Felipe Massa in sixth in the second Ferrari ahead of Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India, Romain Grosjean in the second Lotus and Bruno Senna for Williams rounded out the points scoring.

Vettel has 240 points with Alonso on 227 with Raikkonen a distant third on 173.

Vettel has helped Red Bull to a massive 91 point lead in the constructors' title race from Ferrari, with McLaren a further 10 points adrift.