Mark Webber thought British Grand Prix victory was out of reach

Polesitter Alonso edged away from Webber's Red Bull early on, but his Ferrari could not sustain its pace on soft tyres in the final stint and lost the lead to Webber with four laps to go.

"I have a few wins now, but this one is taking a little bit to sink in," said Webber. "I think it didn't look like a spectacular race with Fernando initially but it was on. There was a little bit of strategy involved, particularly pacing stints on tyres.

"I knew he was running a different way, and I thought after first stint he was in very good shape to close the win out, but it came our way in the last stint and I am absolutely over the moon."

The result saw Webber reduce Alonso's points lead from 20 to 13, but the Australian said he was not thinking about its significance in the title battle at this stage.

"We have a lot of races this year, every single one is important - Melbourne was, as will Brazil be," Webber said. "I have a couple of wins now. I need some consistent results. We know how tight it is, we see Kimi [Raikkonen] finished 10 seconds behind.

"Sometimes I have had bad medicine and it's hard to come back from there. You have to grab what you can. I had a single opportunity to pounce and wasn't going to let it slip."

But he acknowledged that he was feeling in good shape at present.

"I am not low on confidence at the moment, it is going well," said Webber. "We will enjoy today's result, really soak it up, that is what is important. We have to remember how hard we have to work to get these results and tomorrow morning it's [effectively] Hockenheim.

"That is what it has to be about and it is a long, long season and I am not getting too fired up with any particular championship positions at the moment.

"What is for sure is I have a nice haul of points to keep going with - I am not sitting on 20 points trying to start my campaign."