Home favourite Lewis Hamilton led the way in final practice for the British Grand Prix as Marcus Ericsson walked away unscathed from a huge shunt.

While Hamilton, quickest in both sessions at Silverstone on Friday, topped the timesheets once more - his best lap just 0.063 seconds faster than Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg - the one-hour session was heavily disrupted following Ericsson's crash.

With 20 minutes remaining, the Swedish driver lost control of his Sauber on the exit of Stowe before hitting the inside barrier head-on at high speed.

The force of the impact saw Ericsson sustain significant damage to his Sauber, but the 25-year-old walked away from the accident. The red flags were immediately deployed and Ericsson was given a once-over by medical staff at the scene of the crash.

While he appeared fine, his participation in qualifying here later on Saturday is in doubt following the damage sustained to his car.

Marshals were sent to the scene to repair the damage to the safety barriers, and the session was up and running again with a little under five minutes left.

Rosberg, who sat out Friday afternoon's session with a water leak, set the quickest lap only to be usurped by his Mercedes team-mate in the closing moments.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel, fifth in the order, apparently suffered yet another gearbox failure. The Ferrari driver was penalised with a five-place grid drop at the last race in Austria after an unscheduled gearbox change, and he faces the same fate here after reporting a problem in the final knockings of Saturday morning's session.

Practice had started with the drivers taking to the Silverstone track on wet tyres, but the track soon dried and rain is not forecast for qualifying. The Red Bull duo of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were third and fourth, with Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion, 12th in the order and British rookie Jolyon Palmer 18th.