SILVERSTONE (England), July 8: Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen won the British Grand Prix on Sunday to wreck championship leader Lewis Hamilton's hopes of a home celebration.

The Finn, who led a Ferrari one-two in France last weekend, took the chequered flag 2.4 seconds ahead of McLaren's double world champion Fernando Alonso thanks to an astute pitstop strategy.

Raikkonen is now third overall and 18 points adrift of Hamilton with plenty to play for.

Hamilton, the 22-year-old who attracted record crowds to Silverstone – including England midfielder David Beckham and his wife Victoria – for his British debut after an extraordinary run of success, had his lead over team mate Alonso trimmed to 12 points after finishing third.

He led for the first 15 laps only but crossed the line to a roar of sound from the packed grandstands, with banners hailing Formula One's ‘New Kid on the Block’ and future world champion, after starting on pole position.

Yet while the Briton celebrated his ninth podium finish in nine starts, an unprecedented feat for a rookie driver in Formula One, he recognised that he had paid the price for costly errors.

But for Ferrari's Felipe Massa stalling on the grid, and starting from the pit lane, he would surely have finished fourth.

One mistake came in the first pitstop, when Hamilton moved off too early and lost a couple of seconds, and the other was the fundamental set-up of the car.

Alonso, who led for the middle stint of the race, knew he was beaten after Raikkonen emerged from his second pitstop ahead of him.

The Spaniard shook his fist at American Scott Speed when the Toro Rosso driver failed to move over swiftly enough when being lapped.

Raikkonen's win was his third of the season, more than any other driver in a fierce title battle between Ferrari and McLaren, and 12th of his career.

Team mate Massa slipped to fourth place overall, one point behind Raikkonen, after finishing fifth. Poland's Robert Kubica was fourth for BMW Sauber.

Germany's Nick Heidfeld finished sixth for BMW Sauber with the Renaults of Finland's Heikki Kovalainen and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella taking the last points on a bright and breezy afternoon at Silverstone.

Results:

1. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:21:43.074; 2. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren +00:02.459; 3. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 00:39.373; 4. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 00:53.319; 5. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 00:54.063; 6. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 00:56.336; 7. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Renault 1 lap; 8. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault 1 lap; 9. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1 lap; 10. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1 lap; 11. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull – Renault 1 lap; 12. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams – Toyota 1 lap

13. Alexander Wurz (Austria) Williams – Toyota 1 lap; 14. Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri – Honda 2 laps; 15. Christijan Albers (Netherlands) Spyker – Ferrari 2 laps; 16. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso – Ferrari 6 laps.Retired: Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 16 laps; Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri-Honda 24 laps; Scott Speed (US) Toro Rosso – Ferrari 30 laps; Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota 37 laps; Adrian Sutil (Germany) Spyker – Ferrari 43 laps; Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull – Renault 51 laps.

Fastest Lap: Kimi Raikkonen, 1:20.638, lap 17.—Reuters