The McLaren driver headed George Russell and Oliver Bearman, who was in at Haas in place of an unwell Kevin Magnussen, at the end of the opening hour of running in Brazil.
It was a difficult session to read as some opted to mask their pace, ran alternate programs, or simply battled with an excessively bumpy Interlagos circuit.
The circuit has been resurfaced since F1 last visited, though that was evident only through the colour of the tarmac with multiple teams struggling for ride quality.
Given the new surface, track evolution was also notable, making Sergio Perez’s early pace encouraging but not indicative.
The Mexican topped the timesheets following the first run, heading Russell, Fernando Alonso, an Norris.
Forecasts suggest rain later in the weekend, leaving teams in a quandary when it comes to how they use their tyre bank.
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Most still opted for the medium rubber to start with – essentially last year’s soft as Pirelli had gone a step softer for this year’s event.
RB opted for a different approach, taking the soft rubber for Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson in the early stages and swapping to the medium later.
The early focus was understanding the new surface from a tyre wear and grip perspective, but also ride heights, which were significantly different to the expectation.
Nico Hulkenberg described the surface as worse than what it had been prior to the new tarmac being laid.
That process delayed performance runs.
Typically, teams run the medium rubber in the early moments before swapping to the softs midway through for single-lap runs. However, that swap was delayed by close to 20 minutes as teams refined set-up.
Even still, pace was solid, Verstappen recording a 1:11.7s – a lap on par with the best from the same session a year ago, despite running on the medium rubber.
When the switch to soft rubber happened, they found more than a second, with Russell logging a 1:10.791s to go fastest with just over 15 minutes remaining.
His time stood alone, the bulk of the field remaining on the yellow-walled tyre until the final minutes of the session.
Franco Colapinto was the second driver to log a soft tyre lap, recording a time 0.8s away from Russell’s, signalling the start of the performance runs.
Most were on the red-walled rubber and, as such, the timesheets changed rapidly.
Throughout, Russell remained fastest though Bearman sat just 0.014s slower and Norris third and 0.04s back.
Traffic was an issue, Perez’s lap was ruined through the middle sector as he lost 1.5s by the line.
Verstappen was on a better lap than his team-mate, and was broadly on par with Russell, though headed to the lane rather than complete it, masking his true pace as he remained 15th on the timesheets – though clearly with potential to be much higher.
Lewis Hamilton did not complete a soft tyre run, focusing on longer runs as he instead preserved his bank of six soft tyre sets for the weekend’s two qualifying sessions.
Russell’s best was beaten as the chequered flag waved, Norris setting a 1:10.610s for McLaren, Oscar Piastri fourth in the other car, 0.340s off the outright pace.
With their alternate program, the RB pair found themselves 11th and 12th, Lawson ahead of Tsunoda with a best of 1:11.301s.
Focus now switches to the Sprint element of the weekend with Sprint Qualifying to follow.
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