R.B. and McLaren were only joined by Sauber in running the softs in FP1, which ended with Yuki Tsunoda fourth ahead of Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen in fifth and sixth for Aston Martin and Red Bull respectively.
Most of the pack headed out immediately at the start of the one-hour session where windy conditions prevailed in relatively cool temperatures, with all the early running conducted on the medium tires – the C2 variety at last weekend’s test.
The large number of cars on track early meant the lead changed hands rapidly through the first phase, before Verstappen took command at the top.
The Dutchman had been held in the pits the longest of all before he joined the fray with the end of the opening 10 minutes remaining.
He duly shot to the top of the times with his first effort – a 1m33.900s compared to the 1m38.955 that Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg had established as the opening benchmark as he led the pack out then pits initially.
Both Red Bull drivers made brief visits to the pits for front wing flap adjustments to aid their handling, as Verstappen in particular was complaining his RB20 initially felt “miles off.”
After the Mercedes pair had continued to find time as their opening runs continued, Lewis Hamilton got to 0.025s of Verstappen’s leading time before George Russell deposed the world champion with a 1m33.749s.
But that advantage lasted only a few seconds as Verstappen moved ahead again on a 1m33.535s before most of the drivers headed back to their garages and a lull in action.
The order as the halfway point approached had Sergio Perez following the initial frontrunners, with Hamilton behind ahead of Aston Martin’s Alonso and the Ferrari pair led by Charles Leclerc.
But before the 30-minute mark was hit, Piastri led the switch to the C3 softs, and he used the red-walled rubber to post a new benchmark of 1m33.113s, 0.422s ahead of Verstappen’s previous best.
Piastri’s team-mate Norris then produced his own soft tire flier just past the halfway point to go quickest on a 1m32.901s, as the previous frontrunners returned to the track but still running the medium tires.
Hamilton, Leclerc, and Perez quickly recorded better times on the mediums, but not enough to dislodge the McLarens, while other teams moving to the softs also had their drivers move ahead.
Tsunoda’s first lap on soft slotted him in behind Piastri, while in the other RB, Ricciardo took the top spot after 36 minutes with a soft-shod 1m32.869s.
Verstappen finally improved his best time on the mediums, slotting in ahead of Russell and Leclerc but behind the leading softs runners at this stage, having been complaining further about a “positive torque” issue with his engine.
After another lull in action, most of the pack headed out again for a final blast, but still the early frontrunners checked running the softs and instead concentrated on higher fuel running several seconds off the pace.
This preserved the order at the top of the times, leaving a final top 10 behind the top four of Alonso 0.324s off P1, Verstappen 0.369s back, with these two followed by Russell, Leclerc, Hamilton and Valtteri Bottaswho finished up 0.485s slower than Ricciardo with his best time also set on the softs.
Bottas twice attempted a final softs fly late in FP1, but after an improvement in the first sector on his first go he fell back and did not go any quicker.
