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Verstappen was almost two tenths faster than Charles Leclerc with Sergio Perez third.
Oscar Piastri was eighth best, a step forward from Wednesday, while Daniel Ricciardo was 16th.
When the session started, Valtteri Bottas was the first man on track, quickly and predictably followed by Oliver Bearman who’d been drafted in for Carlos Sainz.
Bearman had qualified on Formula 2 pole on Thursday but will take no further part in that championship this weekend.
The Englishman’s initial lap was a 1:33.114s – some eight seconds faster than his F2 pole lap.
Aston Martin began its session by scrubbing in tyres, initially a set of hard rubber and then a set of mediums for both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
Bearman shot to the top of the timesheets after 12 minutes, logging a 1:30.277s.
The opening 15 minutes was comparatively quiet before the bulk of the field headed out and saw the timesheets change quickly.
The soft and medium tyre were the preferred rubber, most having an abundance of softs but a limited pool of mediums – which Thursday suggested wasn’t a great race tyre.
Sergio Perez went fastest with a 1:29.562s after 20 minutes while Nico Hulkenberg rose to fifth best with a time that almost matched that of Lewis Hamilton in fourth.
Soon after, Charles Leclerc went quickest with a 1:29.206s on a set of medium rubber, an effort beaten by Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman was 0.313s faster than his Ferrari rival, having used a set of soft tyres.
A moment between Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll saw the former impended through the first sector, which caught the eye of officials who deemed no further investigation was necessary.
A brush with the wall from Logan Sargeant left the Williams driver with broken steering and forced him to limp back to the pits to end his session.
It preceded a red flag when Zhou Guanyu crashed heavily at Turn 8 to draw the red flags.
The Chinese driver had lost the back end of the Sauber in Turn 7 before spinning into the wall on the outside of the following right-hander.
Just prior to the stopped, Verstappen had lowered the benchmark to 1:28.412s, a time seven-tenths better than Leclerc in second.
Alonso sat third, then Kevin Magnussen, Perez, George Russell, and Alex Albon.
Oscar Piastri sat tenth under the red flag while Daniel Ricciardo was 16th – two places up from Yuki Tsunoda in the other RB.
With five minutes left on the clock, the session resumed.
The field headed out on a set of soft compound tyres, the final moments a turning into something of a qualifying simulation.
That was handy for nine drivers, who’d not completed a soft tyre run earlier in the session – Bearman among them.
The Englishman began his lap with just 90 seconds remaining, leaving him time for just a single flying lap.
He was 0.454s down through the first split, though it was a personal best sector, before running wide at Turn 22.
Bearman carried on regardless as he chased experience rather than lap time, and crossed the line seventh.
The session ended with Verstappen fastest from Leclerc by 0.196s with Perez third.
Then came Russell, Norris, Alonso, Stroll, Piastri, Hamilton, and Bearman, who was relegated to 10th as others completed their laps.
