British GP: Nico Rosberg leads practice, Lewis Hamilton only fourth

Rosberg, quickest in first practice, clocked a 1m34.155s on the medium compound tyres to finish 0.466 seconds and three places clear of Hamilton, who made a mistake in the final sector on his low-fuel run.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who has endured torrid weekends at the last two races in Canada and Austria, was second quickest, 0.02s clear of team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

It was a frustrating day for Hamilton, who was unhappy with the stability of his Mercedes and reported during his long run that "the car is all over the place", although he had been quickest on the hard tyres at first.

The session, held in beautifully sunny conditions with air temperatures hovering around 23C, was red-flagged early on when Romain Grosjean beached his Lotus at Luffield.

On the resumption, Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat popped up into second on the hard tyres. Though he was unable to improve on mediums, that time still kept him fifth until the end, a tenth clear of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Toro Rosso's strong day continued as Max Verstappen finished seventh and Carlos Sainz Jr ninth with Nico Hulkenberg splitting the duo in eighth in the revised Force India after an early spell in third behind the Mercedes.

Felipe Massa was the highest-placed Williams, which does not traditionally show its true pace on Fridays, in 10th with Valtteri Bottas, who missed first practice as Susie Wolff was in the car, 12th.

Pastor Maldonado was 11th, two seconds off the pace, with Grosjean rejoining the fray after his earlier off to end the session 14th, one place behind Force India's Sergio Perez.

McLaren continued its plan to limit its running, after both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button changed engines to older units, with Alonso 15th and Button 17th and just 34 laps between them. Alonso had a minor excursion at Luffield but avoided getting stuck.

Sauber expected the sweeping turns of Silverstone to prove challenging for its car and so it proved with Felipe Nasr 16th and Marcus Ericsson 18th.

Roberto Merhi brought out a second red flag when he spun at Luffield, beaching the Manor in the gravel.

But he was able to get going again when marshals pushed him back onto the track.

The Spaniard propped up the timesheets, 5.7s off the pace and 1.6s slower than his team-mate Will Stevens in 19th.

PRACTICE TWO TIMES: