The Dutchman punched in a 1m30.688s to stand atop the timing boards, having been bumped off the top following his opening run on soft tyres as the rest of the front-running pack waited until later to clock their first times on softs.
Verstappen had originally stepped up to the top of the pile with a 1m31.377s on his first timed run, going early on soft tyres as the majority of the field used the early part of the session to explore Pirelli's prototype tyre compound.
