Silverstone: Red Bull's Mark Webber won the British Grand Prix Sunday, hunting down and passing Ferrari's Fernando Alonso with four laps remaining after the Spaniard had led for most of the 52-lap race.

Sahara Force India failed to finish among the points in their home race.

Webber, who took the second win of the season after victory in Monaco, made the most of his superior track grip on harder tires to bravely take Alonso around the outside before nipping back across to defend the lead.

"It was a very interesting race. At the start Fernando had a lot of pace. We had a better strategy in the end there," said Webber, who also won in Silverstone in 2010, from the podium.

"It's a very special victory for the team. ... I'm very proud today."

The second place was enough for Alonso to keep his lead on 129 points in the driver's championship, though the Australian cut it to just 13 with the victory.

"I'm still there. It's the main target for us," said Alonso, the two-time champion, who won last year's race and also in 2006.

"It was quite close today but at the end Mark was much quicker than us. I congratulate him."

Webber's teammate and reigning champion Sebastian Vettel came third.

It was a disappointing home race for McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button, who finished eighth and 10th respectively.

Lotus pair Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean sealed an impressive performance for the team with fifth and sixth respectively, with Michael Schumacher pipping Hamilton to seventh in the last few laps.

There was also anguish for Caterham driver Vitaly Petrov, who was put out of the race after a last-minute engine failure.

The Russian was putting his car through its paces about 20 minutes before the start at Silverstone when smoke began pouring from his engine.

Caterham mechanics were unable to repair the damage before the start of the race.

Heikki Kovalainen finished 17th, just behind Pastor Maldonado, who had bumped Sergio Perez off the track earlier on in another controversial track incident involving the Venezuelan Williams driver. (IANS)