Lewis Hamilton fourth in British GP practice from Nico Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton was only fourth fastest in second practice at the British Grand Prix as Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg set the pace.

Hamilton, 0.466 seconds slower than Rosberg, complained about the car as both Ferraris also out-paced him.

Hamilton even aborted his race-simulation run because of the car's handling.

Lewis Hamilton trailed his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg by 0.466 seconds

"The car is all over the place. I can't go any faster than I am now," Hamilton said over the radio.

The 2014 champion - who leads the drivers' championship standings by 10 points from Rosberg - struggled to lap within a second of Rosberg with a full tank of fuel on his race simulation.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen pipped team-mate Sebastian Vettel by 0.02secs to go second as speculation swirls about the 2007 world champion's future at the team.

Rosberg also headed the first session in the morning, although Hamilton was faster on the first runs in the second session on the hard tyre, before his afternoon unravelled.

Despite Hamilton's problems, Mercedes look in a league of their own, ahead of Sunday's race at 13:00 BST - when 140,000 are expected to attend - with a comfortable margin over Ferrari on both low and high fuel in the region of 0.5secs a lap.

Fernando Alonso's season of difficulties continued as he became the second driver of the afternoon to spin off

But Daniil Kvyat hinted at a better weekend for Red Bull with fifth place, suggesting that the aerodynamic qualities of the car might put them into a fight with Williams as third-best team.

The Russian's team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was sixth fastest, 0.144secs behind, ahead of the Toro Rosso of Max Verstappen, Force India's Nico Hulkenberg, the second Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz and Williams's Felipe Massa.

Three drivers had incidents at the long, looping Luffield hairpin.

Romain Grosjean beached his Lotus in the gravel, bringing out the red flag for the car to be cleared. A few minutes later, McLaren's Fernando Alonso went off in the same place but managed to drive through the gravel trap and rejoin.

Later, Manor's Roberto Merhi spun and stopped, causing a second brief stoppage.

McLaren were struggling all round. Both drivers were limited on mileage because of the age of their engines, while Alonso's car looked uncomfortable to drive and Button complained that his was.

At one stage, his engineer asked the 2009 world champion if he wanted to do another lap, and Button replied: "No. There is something wrong with the car."

Manor's Roberto Merhi followed fellow countryman Fernando Alonso as he spun and stopped

Kimi Raikkonen put speculation of his future to one side as he finished above team mate Sebastian Vettel

Nico Rosberg continued where he left off in practice one

British GP practice results

British GP Full coverage details