Formula One star Fernando Alonso has reportedly remained coy about his chances of lifting the F1 crown ahead of Sunday's showdown in Sao Paulo.

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The Ferrari ace is currently trailing Red Bull rival Sebastian Vettel by 13 points.

"In Formula One there's always pressure but definitely we have less than if we were leading the championship. We have nothing really to lose. We are arriving in second position after five qualifying sessions dominated by Red Bull," The Sun quoted Alonso, as saying.

"Winning the title looks like a very difficult achievement but if everything goes normally, we should finish second. If something else happens, maybe we will win the championship but because it's not in our hands, the pressure is much less," he added.

According to the paper, it was thanks to Ferrari's controversial tactics, which allowed Alonso the chance to take this title fight down to the wire. The Italian team needlessly opened up his team-mate Felipe Massa's gearbox in Austin to trigger a five-place grid penalty.

That bumped Alonso further up the grid and allowed him to sit on the clean side of the track and, on the first lap he was up to fourth, despite starting in seventh. But Alonso, 31, says if he were to beat Vettel to the title here, then he is adamant his victory would not be tainted, the paper said.

"Fighting for the constructors' championship is one of the targets that we have. We want to beat McLaren and it worked quite well," he said.

"Because it worked quite well, maybe the people were not very happy but I'm proud more than anything because we said the truth when we changed the gearbox. Not many teams are able to tell the truth when they make a strategic decision," he added.