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In an opening session with one red flag interruption caused by an early on-track stoppage for Aston Martin’s Felipe Drugovich, who is standing in for the injured Lance Stroll, reigning world champion Verstappen traded best lap times with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Sainz’s 1m33.253s led for the majority of the morning but was beaten by Verstappen’s 1m32.959s set 35 minutes before the lunch interval.
All teams enjoyed productive running, as only Drugovich lost a significant amount of track time due to what the team called a sensor issue related to the ECU, with the relatively stable technical regulations allowing teams to get up to speed quickly with their 2023 F1 cars.
To underline that point, the majority of squads completed over a grand prix distance on the opening morning, primarily focused on data collection, aero runs and installation work.
Verstappen, whose leading lap time was almost a full second quicker than the best lap se …