When the clock finally started to run, it was Verstappen who was one of the first to hit the asphalt. He had some catching up to do and opened VT2 on softs, which gave him the fastest time early on: 1.13.465. However, a number of drivers also managed to go faster on mediums quite soon afterwards, as a result of which Verstappen (now improved to 1.13,042) again disappeared from the top of the time list. Charles Leclerc (1.12.345) and Carlos Sainz 1.12.349) claimed P1 and P2 respectively, followed by Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris, who is making a solid impression with the McLaren team for the time being.