Fernando Alonso has stopped looking at the Formula One drivers' title standings after having watched Sebastian Vettel increase his already considerable lead.

Alonso was Vettel's closest challenger in the European Grand Prix in Valencia, but spent most of his time on track staring at the back of the champion's Red Bull car.

At one stage, Alonso raised hopes of a home victory, but in the end was happy to settle for finishing on the podium.

However, in losing more ground to Vettel following the 23-year-old's sixth win in eight races this season, Alonso is now fifth in the standings, 99 points adrift.

"I'm happy with the performance and the team moving forward from a difficult start to the season," Alonso said.

"The gap is 99 points, so obviously the championship is not in our calculations. We just need to try and win the races we go to and wait for some mistakes from Red Bull.

"At the moment I don't think we can think of the championship. We just need to see what happens in the last part of the season.

"We're still eight tenths of a second behind, so anyone who thinks we can win a championship being that far behind doesn't understand F1."

Vettel hailed his weekend as "better than anything I could imagine" after adding pole position and the fastest lap to his roll of honour.

Australian Mark Webber was third and is the closest rival to Vettel along with McLaren's Jenson Button, who was sixth, with both 77 points adrift in the standings. Lewis Hamilton was fourth to lie 89 points behind.

There were no retirements, with a record 24 cars crossing the finish line in Valencia.