British GP: Lewis Hamilton leads practice, trouble for Nico Rosberg

The reigning world champion clocked a time of 1m32.917s on the medium tyre, 0.552 seconds clear of Rosberg, with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen third.

Rosberg, who has won three of the last four races, looked to have the measure of Hamilton on Friday when he topped the times in both sessions despite a hydraulics problem.

The German was confined to the garage for much of the final half of the Saturday morning session while Mercedes investigated a gearbox oil leak - but the team managed to get him back out in time to do a qualifying-simulation.

After completing an installation lap early in the session, Mercedes chose to sit in the garage for the opening 20 minutes while the track rubbered back in following overnight rain.

Rosberg was first to lay down a marker with a 1m34.436s on the hard tyres but Hamilton was able to pip the German by 0.037s.

Rosberg improved, clocking a 1m33.731s but again Hamilton responded, going four tenths quicker.

The Briton then waited until the final few minutes to do his low-fuel run on the mediums and promptly went quickest, with Rosberg slotting into second having failed to edge Hamilton in any of the three sectors.

Sebastian Vettel, who was one of a number of drivers who ran wide at Copse corner, was fourth, three tenths adrift of Ferrari team-mate Raikkonen.

Max Verstappen claimed Toro Rosso had the second-fastest car in terms of race pace behind Mercedes and proved it is pretty handy over one-lap, too, with the fifth fastest time, fractionally quicker than team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr in sixth.

The Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, who admitted to struggling with tyre temperatures on one-lap runs on Friday, were seventh and eighth respectively.

Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat and Lotus's Pastor Maldonado completed the top 10 with Nico Hulkenberg, whose B-spec Force India showed promise on Friday, 11th.

Daniel Ricciardo, who like team-mate Kvyat and the two Mercedes sat out the opening part of the session while the track rubbered in, was 12th, ahead of Force India's Sergio Perez.

Romain Grosjean was 14th, half a second adrift of his Lotus team-mate Maldonado but ahead of Sauber's Felipe Nasr.

Jenson Button was the lead McLaren in 16th, with his team-mate Fernando Alonso 18th having managed just six laps as he ended his session early.

Sauber's Marcus Ericsson was 17th with the Manors of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi completing the timesheets in 19th and 20th respectively.

PRACTICE THREE TIMES: