Nico Hulkenberg frittered away a strong grid position to finish ninth at his home race while Paul di Resta finished 11th as Sahara Force India returned with just two points from the German Grand Prix, here today.

Most of the times the two Force India drivers struggled due to tyre degradation and pace of the car as faster cars overtook them at will, throughout the 67-lap race.

Hulkenberg dropped five places and Di Resta two after starting fourth and ninth respectively.

The result though helped Force India narrow the gap with Williams to just one point. Force India now have 46 points, one less than Willams, but stay in eighth position in the constructors' championship table.

India's Narain Karthikeyan finished 23rd for Hispania.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso won his third race of the season from pole position. Defending Champion Sebestian Vettel of Red Bull pipped MacLaren's Jenson Button in the penultimate lap with a controversial overtake to grab the second position from the Briton.

Hulkenberg started fourth, one slot ahead of original qualification since Red Bull's Mark Webber was handed a five-place grid penalty for gear box change.

Both the Force India drivers, in top-10, were put under a lot of pressure by the faster cars behind them. Di Resta faced stiff competition, first from Lotus' Kimi Raikonnen and then from Sauber's Sergio Perez.

In lap five, Din Resta was first overtaken by the Finn on turn 14 and then in lap nine, Perez pushed the Scott to the 10th position. In the previous lap, Jenson Button had used DRS option to leave behind Hulkenberg.

In lap 15 both Michael Schumacher, who was coming out of pitlane, and Raikonnen got past Hulkenberg on the hair pin.

The Force India driver though worked his way to sixth position by lap 26 and Di Resta was just outside the top-10.

At half-way stage, Hulkenberg was struggling to get back to top-10, but Di Resta kept team's points hope alive by managing to stay in the ninth spot.

Hulkenberg slowly and steadily worked his way up and was seventh by lap 42 with two pit stops, while Di Resta kept moving in and out of top-10.

Hulkenberg was visibly disappointed with his performance today as he hoped for a much better result from the race.

"It's good to come away with some points but I was certainly hoping for a bit more from my home race," he said after finishing ninth in the German GP.

"We always knew it was going to be tough to hang on to the fourth place because we did not look especially strong in the dry conditions on Saturday morning. But when you're in that position you hope for the best," Hulkenberg added.

His team-mate Paul Di Resta, who finished 11th after starting ninth on the grid, said both the Force India cars struggled due to tyre degradation and for pace.

"A tough race today and ultimately we didn't have the pace to match teams like Lotus and Sauber. The story of the race was deciding whether to stop two or three times and with hindsight we probably could have been more aggressive," he said.

"But it was hard to understand the tyres and we seemed to struggle for pace in the middle of each stint."

Team principal Vijay Mallya too was disappointed with the eventual result but said it was important for the Silverstone-based side to finish among points today which they did.

"Two important points scored today, but we were hoping for more considering our strong starting positions. With today's result we have moved within a point of Williams in the championship and hopefully we can continue ourpoints run in Hungary next weekend," Mallya said.

"Both the drivers battled hard, but it was difficult to defend on such an open track where it is easy to overtake," he added.