Rosberg quickest in Silverstone practice

Nico Rosberg emerged as the man to beat after topping the timesheets in practice ahead of Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The Mercedes driver, who overcame a hydraulic problem to set the pace in opening practice, continued his impressive run by improving to post a 1:34.155s in the 90 minute afternoon session.

Rosberg’s effort, set on medium compound tyres, proved to be 0.4s quicker than team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who finished fourth after struggling with the set up of his Mercedes.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen trailed Rosberg by 0.347s in second with the Finn marginally ahead of his team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Red Bull appeared to close the gap to sharp end of the grid with Daniil Kvyat fifth and Daniel Ricciardo sixth as the pair ran with a raft of upgrades on the RB11.

Max Verstappen impressed throughout as the teenager posted a time good enough for seventh, in front of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and his Toro Rosso opposite number Carlos Sainz Jr.

The Williams of Felipe Massa rounded out the top 10 with the Brazilian almost two seconds adrift of Rosberg’s pace.

Valtteri Bottas, who sat out Practice 1 in favour of Williams test driver Susie Wolff, was 12th behind the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado.

Maldonado’s team-mate Romain Grosjean ended the day in 14th position after missing a chunk of Practice 2 when he beached the car in the Luffield gravel trap to cause the first of two stoppages.

Marussia’s Roberto Merhi almost produced a carbon copy of the incident in the final minutes of the session.

McLaren once again struggled for pace with Fernando Alonso 15th and Jenson Button 17th for the Woking-based team.

Result: Formula 1 British Grand Prix Practice 2, Silverstone

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:34.155s	–	34
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:34.502s	+0.347s	29
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:34.522s	+0.367s	27
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:34.621s	+0.466s	23
5	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull/Renault	1:35.009s	+0.854s	25
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1:35.153s	+0.998s	22
7	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso/Renault	1:35.300s	+1.145s	36
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1:35.387s	+1.232s	34
9	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Renault	1:35.866s	+1.711s	37
10	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1:36.147s	+1.992s	33
11	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus/Mercedes	1:36.164s	+2.009s	32
12	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1:36.183s	+2.028s	33
13	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1:36.351s	+2.196s	29
14	Romain Grosjean	Lotus/Mercedes	1:36.728s	+2.573s	21
15	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1:36.731s	+2.576s	19
16	Felipe Nasr	Sauber/Ferrari	1:36.822s	+2.667s	23
17	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	1:37.196s	+3.041s	16
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1:37.327s	+3.172s	37
19	Will Stevens	Marussia/Ferrari	1:38.279s	+4.124s	21
20	Roberto Merhi	Marussia/Ferrari	1:39.878s	5.723s	21

Result: Formula 1 British Grand Prix Practice 1, Silverstone

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:34.274s	–	12
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:34.344s	+0.070s	26
3	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso/Renault	1:35.530s	+1.256s	18
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:35.588s	+1.314s	21
5	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Renault	1:35.669s	+1.395s	33
6	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:35.739s	+1.465s	17
7	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1:35.818s	+1.544s	26
8	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull/Renault	1:35.876s	+1.602s	22
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1:36.157s	+1.883s	28
10	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1:36.469s	+2.195s	23
11	Felipe Nasr	Sauber/Ferrari	1:36.855s	+2.581s	20
12	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1:36.889s	+2.615s	26
13	Susie Wolff	Williams/Mercedes	1:37.242s	+2.968s	19
14	Jolyon Palmer	Lotus/Mercedes	1:37.262s	+2.988s	26
15	Raffaele Marciello	Sauber/Ferrari	1:37.372s	+3.098s	17
16	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus/Mercedes	1:38.080s	+3.806s	8
17	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1:38.222s	+3.948s	12
18	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	1:38.860s	+4.586s	10
19	Will Stevens	Marussia/Ferrari	1:38.981s	4.707s	23
20	Roberto Merhi	Marussia/Ferrari	1:40.477s	+6.203s	23