Verstappen and Russell then lowered the first place benchmark, before Perez nipped ahead on a 1m12.099s.
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
That stood as the top spot for a little while, before Russell and then Verstappen got back ahead with 1m11.806s and 1m11.712s efforts respectively.
After a lull in action to allow for initial set-up adjustments, the drivers headed back out on the same rubber as before – with Hamilton climbing the order to sit second with his first timed lap back on track.
Approaching the final third, Russell made an early switch to the softs and duly retook first with a 1m10.791s, but it took a chunk more of the session before any more of the frontrunners did likewise.
That looked to be toppled when Verstappen went quicker than Russell in sector one on his first flier on the softs in the closing minutes, before the Dutchman lost enough time in sector two to be behind the benchmark and he then aborted the lap in any case.
This confined Verstappen to 15th with his best time coming from the mediums, while Perez did complete a softs run that was only good for 19th in the replaced chassis he is running this weekend.
Russell was finally beaten with Norris’s final lap in the closing minute, as the McLaren driver posted a 1m10.610s, which did not feature Norris’s best final sector on the session.
Hamilton did not run the softs and so ended up 16th in a session where there was much driver feedback on savage bumps in the new track surface.
