Fernando Alonso cruised to a dominant victory in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone yesterday and warned his beleaguered championship rivals to expect more of the same for the rest of the season.

The driver, from the Enstone-based Renault team, led from pole position to win with ease after seeing off a challenge from McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher.

As those two scrapped for second place, a fight the Ferrari driver would ultimately win, Alonso eased his way to a fifth win of the season to stretch his championship lead to 23 points.

Former world champion Schumacher is already reeling from Alonso's three consecutive victories and he was warned to expect no respite in the Spaniard's relentless march to a second world title.

Alonso said: "So far it has been fantastic, five wins and three seconds. There is nothing more to find in the car. We are running on the limit of the car and there are no mechanical problems. It is a fantastic job from all the people in the team.

"We need to keep doing this. The best defence from now on will be to attack and keep winning races.

"Everything is going for us so far but you never know every race is a new challenge, a new opportunity to prove we are still competitive."

Schumacher had no answer to Alonso's speed in front of more than 80,000 fans at a Silverstone, and he had his work cut out beating Raikkonen to second place.

The seven-times world champion pressured Raikkonen throughout the race but was only able to get ahead at the second round of pit stops, by which time Alonso was clear out front.

Schumacher was adamant Alonso can be caught in the championship, although he admits Ferrari must raise their game if he is to claim an eighth world crown.

"To me this race was not crucial at all," he said.

"There are 10 races to go, plenty of opportunity. We believe in ourselves and we will do a lot of hard work and take as many points as we can."

Once Schumacher had dispatched Raikkonen, the Finn fell into the clutches of Alonso's Renault team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella.

The Italian piled the pressure on but was unable to find a way past and had to make do with a fourth place, which extends Renault's lead in the constructors' championship to 31 points over Ferrari.

Raikkonen conceded McLaren had no chance of victory, with third place the best he could hope for.

He said: "It was not an easy race, we were not quick enough. I did the best that I could and we finished third, that was the best we deserved today.

"We were just not quick enough, there was nothing I could have done and no way I could have got any more."

Behind Raikkonen, Ferrari's Felipe Massa was fifth while Juan Pablo Montoya finished sixth.

BMW-Sauber got two cars in the points with Nick Heidfeld and Jacques Villeneuve seventh and eighth respectively.