Red Bull's Australian driver Mark Webber holds up his trophy and champagne during the awarding ceremony of the Formula One British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit July 11, 2010. Webber won the champion with 1 hour 24 minutes and 38.200 seconds. [Xinhua]

Mark Webber of Red Bull claimed victory at the British Formula One Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit on Sunday.

The Australian managed to edge out teammate Sebastian Vettel soon after the start, then kept leading the field until finishing the 52-lap event first in one hours 24 minutes and 38.200 seconds on the newly-reconstructed track.

"I just did the best job I could do today and it worked out okay. Enjoyed the grand prix to be honest. It was a good fight with Lewis," Said the 33-year-old Webber.

Lewis Hamilton representing McLaren took the runner-up position with 1.3 seconds behind and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes GP finished third.

"It's been a phenomenal weekend - and this result is a near-perfect way to finish it. I'm so happy: considering how far behind we were in practice, we really didn't expect to be this far up today," said the 2008 world champion Hamilton who managed to overtake Fernando Alonso right after the start, then trailed behind Webber tightly all along.

His teammate Jenson Button steered really well as the defending world champion made a fourth finish for McLaren, 10 places higher than he did in the qualifying session.

Vettel, starting from the pole position, had to went to the pit early but bravely dashed to a seventh finish from the bottom position.

"I had a bad start, we went too aggressive with the clutch and I had quite a lot of wheel-spin. Then I had the puncture," said the German who had to go back the pit after the first lap to switch tyres as he got a slight brush with Hamilton right after the start.

"Unfortunately after I got it, I got a bit of damage to the car which lost me some performance, but I was able to recover and score some points, which was important," said the winner at Silverstone last year.

Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, who started from the second row, suffered a bad start as he was surpassed by three cars immediately. Then the former world champion was hit by a drive through penalty after cutting corner to overtake Robert Kubica during the race.

Alonso finally finished 14th, one place ahead of teammate Felipe Massa, while Renult's Kubica had to retire with 33 laps to go.

Hamilton and Button kept the top two positions in the drivers standings with 145 and 133 points respectively. McLaren led the constructors standings with 278 points.