If Fernando Alonso crosses the finish line in Brazil with the title, it will be arguably the greatest achievement in modern Formula 1 history.

The Ferrari star has been hamstrung by a relatively uncompetitive car for the entirety of 2012. 

Yet he finds himself 13 points behind championship leader and favourite Sebastian Vettel for today's title showdown.

The reigning champion has had the superior car this season and his task his helped by the fact that he has qualified fourth for today's final race.

Qualifying woes

If he holds that position until the end he will have won the title, regardless of Alonso's performance.

Ferrari's Saturday woes continued yesterday as Alonso qualified off the pace again, this time down in eight.

With a 13 point gap to overhaul, the Spaniard will most likely need to win today's race and hope his Red Bull rival fails to finish higher than fifth.

Winning the race seems a long shot, considering that the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have locked out the front row, with both Red Bulls third and fourth.

The fact that Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa starts fifth could help frustrate Vettel - provided Massa can get past Vettel at the first corner and hold him up. But that is only half the battle.

Red Bull reliability

The onus is still on Alonso to make swift progress into the upper reaches of the points positions. It is imperative that he gets off to a superb start in order to join the leading pack. 

A podium place is a must for Alonso even if Vettel fails to finish as third-place would give him 15 points, enough to overhaul the German if he finishes tenth, crashes out or suffers reliability problems.

And reliability could be an issue for Red Bull. In the last race at the USA Grand Prix, Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber retired with an alternator failure - not the first time the team have suffered that issue this season.