On a warm and sunny afternoon in the Styrian hills, Lewis Hamilton opened the session with a 1m09.021s, but Max Verstappen's 1m08.094s soon blew that into the reeds as the current championship leader made the most of the session's early phases.
Sergio Perez turned up the pace with a 1m07.595s lap to go top and, although Verstappen closed off the opening five minutes with a 1m07.145s, the Mexican posted a 1m07.111s to continue the early tete-a-tete over the fastest time - both circulating on the hard compound tyres.
