British GP: Hamilton fastest as Rosberg's Mercedes sidelined

Reigning world champion Hamilton clocked a 1m31.660s on the soft tyre, which was 0.006 seconds slower than his leading time on F1's medium compound in the morning session at Silverstone.

He finished 0.391s clear of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, with Max Verstappen, who set the fastest first sector overall but made a mistake on his quick lap at Copse, third.

Mercedes found a water leak on Rosberg's car and though the team initially started getting ready to send him out, it called it a day halfway through the session to conduct a full investigation.

Hamilton set the early pace with a 1m33.505s on the mediums, 0.191s ahead of Ricciardo, and then improved by nearly two seconds when he bolted on the softs.

The Briton, whose leading time was nearly six tenths quicker than his 2015 pole position time, then turned his attention to long runs for the remainder of the session.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was fourth fastest, nine tenths off the pace and one tenth clear of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, whose 2017 contract extension was announced on Friday morning.

Ferrari split its long-run programme with Vettel running the medium and Raikkonen the hards before both cars swapped to the soft for a final stint.

Fernando Alonso was an impressive sixth for McLaren, 1.380s off the pace, but his team-mate Jenson Button had a frustrating session in front of his home crowd.

After Button returned to the track after a lengthy spell in the garage mid-session, he was recalled to the pits after reporting something strange with the power.

The team got the Briton back out in the closing stages of the session on the softs and he ended up ninth, 2.1s off Hamilton's benchmark.

Valtteri Bottas was the leading Williams in seventh, ahead of Romain Grosjean with Felipe Massa completing the top 10 behind Button.

Esteban Gutierrez got his first chance to drive this weekend, after handing his Haas over to Charles Leclerc in FP1, and ended up 12th.

Daniil Kvyat, who was 13th quickest, had an off-track excursion after he clobbered a kerb and broke his Toro Rosso's front wing as he arrived at Club sideways.

PRACTICE TWO RESULTS: