Championship leader Sebastian Vettel extends Ferrari contract until 2020

New Delhi: Sebastian Vettel has signed a contract extension with Ferrari and committed to the Scuderia until the end of the 2020 season.

The four-time world champion, who was due to become a free agent at the end of the season, has agreed a new three-year deal with the team.

There are, however, likely to be performance-related clauses in the deal which would enable Vettel to leave the team before the contract's full duration, just as he did three years ago when he left Red Bull to join Ferrari.

Vettel is leading the championship by 14 points from Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton with nine races remaining.

The move ends speculation that the 30-year-old could be considering a move to Mercedes in the near future.

A statement from Ferrari said the team had "extended its technical and racing agreement" with Vettel "for the 2018, 2019 and 2020 racing seasons of the F1 world championship".

Ferrari announced earlier this week they had retained Vettel's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen for one more season.

Hamilton is contracted to Mercedes until the end of 2018.