They were followed by the Mercedes duo and Carlos Sainz as the lead Ferrari driver in seventh, with his penalty-addled team-mate Charles Leclerc down in 11th but with the red car pair running a notably different run plan to the leaders.
AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries led the pack out of the pits, but it was Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas who established the first-place benchmark at 1m35.701s using the medium tyres.
