On a warm and sunny afternoon in the Styrian hills, Lewis Hamilton opened the session with a 1m09.021s, but 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.
Verstappen hit back with a 1m06.961s to demonstrate Red Bull's early duopoly at its home circuit, but this was interrupted by Fernando Alonso's 1m06.656s on the yellow-walled Pirelli tyres as the Spaniard flew to the top.
A scant 0.058s in hand proved enough for Verstappen to reclaim top spot, before Hamilton punched in a 1m06.416s to move above his 2021 title rival.
The order remained relatively settled as the opening half-hour came to a close, although the top five was later disrupted by the presence of Alex Albon on soft tyres, following Williams' decision to forgo the opening 20 minutes of the session.
As the session approached its final 15 minutes, more teams elected to explore the limits of the Red Bull Ring circuit on soft tyres in preparation for qualifying later in the day.
Lance Stroll launched himself into second, just 0.134s away from Hamilton's time on the hard tyre, but the top three swiftly changed as Charles Leclerc went to the top on soft tyres. Perez then moved up to second on the medium, before the two were beaten by Verstappen's 1m06.084s on the middle tyre set.
Sainz then posted a 1m05.983s on his first flying run on softs, a tenth faster than Verstappen, and took the chequered flag as the full hour elapsed with the Spanish driver on top.
But Verstappen's final lap was good enough to usurp Sainz at the end of the session, posting a 1m05.742s on the medium tyre following a trio of build laps and setting a comparatively leisurely opening sector.
Leclerc filtered into third having beaten Verstappen's prior lap to sit 0.03s behind team-mate Sainz in the timing order, as Hamilton's sole soft-tyre run was half a second off the pace.
Perez and Stroll were fifth and sixth fastest, the Canadian having run over debris earlier on in the session but suffering no ill effects. Haas' Kevin Magnussen was seventh on the timing boards and had time to indulge in a minor contretemps with Nyck de Vries, who did not understand why the Dane moved over on him on the exit of Turn 1.
Alonso was eighth fastest without a soft tyre run, while George Russell's ninth-fastest time was set on the hard tyre. Zhou Guanyu completed the top 10, ahead of the late-starting Albon in the session.
Lando Norris propped up the table despite having the full fleet of new McLaren upgrades on his car, but had got out of the car early and did not complete a final soft tyre lap as the team was spotted tinkering with his front wing.
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Time | Gap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Max Verstappen |
 |
Red Bull | Red Bull | 30 | 1'05.742 | |
| 2 |  Carlos Sainz |
 |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 32 | 1'05.983 | 0.241 |
| 3 |  Charles Leclerc |
 |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 33 | 1'06.012 | 0.270 |
| 4 |  Lewis Hamilton |
 |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 34 | 1'06.251 | 0.509 |
| 5 |  Sergio Perez |
|
Red Bull | Red Bull | 32 | 1'06.262 | 0.520 |
| 6 |  Lance Stroll |
 |
Aston Martin | Mercedes | 29 | 1'06.340 | 0.598 |
| 7 |  Kevin Magnussen |
 |
Haas | Ferrari | 27 | 1'06.497 | 0.755 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso |
 |
Aston Martin | Mercedes | 31 | 1'06.656 | 0.914 |
| 9 | George Russell |
 |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 28 | 1'06.696 | 0.954 |
| 10 |  Zhou Guanyu |
 |
Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 33 | 1'06.780 | 1.038 |
| 11 |  Alex Albon |
 |
Williams | Mercedes | 23 | 1'06.794 | 1.052 |
| 12 |  Oscar Piastri |
 |
McLaren | Mercedes | 36 | 1'06.809 | 1.067 |
| 13 |  Nico Hulkenberg |
 |
Haas | Ferrari | 30 | 1'06.846 | 1.104 |
| 14 |  Valtteri Bottas |
 |
Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 33 | 1'06.847 | 1.105 |
| 15 |  Yuki Tsunoda |
 |
AlphaTauri | Red Bull | 34 | 1'06.985 | 1.243 |
| 16 | Nyck de Vries |
 |
AlphaTauri | Red Bull | 36 | 1'07.017 | 1.275 |
| 17 |  Logan Sargeant |
 |
Williams | Mercedes | 25 | 1'07.018 | 1.276 |
| 18 |  Esteban Ocon |
 |
Alpine | Renault | 30 | 1'07.202 | 1.460 |
| 19 | Pierre Gasly |
 |
Alpine | Renault | 28 | 1'07.287 | 1.545 |
| 20 | Lando Norris |
 |
McLaren | Mercedes | 20 | 1'07.368 | 1.626 |
| View full results | |||||||
