George Russell headed Oscar Piastri at the end of a wet opening practice that saw Sergio Perez crash out inside five minutes.
Perez spun shortly after the session began to draw the first of two red flags.
The second came for Carlos Sainz, who got stuck on the wet grass in the session’s latter stages.
It was a mixed outing, starting dry only for rain to arrive, leading to long periods of nothing on track.
The crash for Perez came at Turn 5 when the Mexican dropped a wheel entering the right-hander.
“I can’t believe this,” he reported over the radio.
Pitched into a spin, he was only arrested when he clouted the tyre barrier.
It drew the red flag with just three minutes into the first 60-minute practice session.
The delay lasted seven minutes, during which light ran began to fall, triggering a traffic jam at the end of the pit lane.
It was a light shower and slicks were still the order of the day. However, it was increasingly slippery.
Valtteri Bottas lost the back end turning into Turn 11, at which point the field headed to the pits as the rain intensified.
Lewis Hamilton finally broke the silence as he headed out on a set of intermediate tyres with just under 40 minutes to run.
A handful of others followed suit though only completing an installation lap at reduced pace before cruising back to the pits.
By the time Oscar Piastri headed out with 28 minutes remaining, plumes of spray had become visible behind his McLaren, conditions transitioning from slippery to wet.
Bottas became the first driver to set a time in the session, a sedate 1:47.787s though his Alfa Romeo Sauber still protested about the lack of grip constantly.
Soon after, a second red flag was called when Carlos Sainz spun exiting Turn 3, beaching his car on the side of the track.
The Ferrari driver lost the back end exiting the left-hander, clouting the barrier on the right-hand side of the circuit with the front wing and left-rear tyre.
He was freed by marshalls who pushed him back onto the race track, Sainz trundling the car back to the pits with damage to the front wing end fence.
The circuit was far busier at the restart with just over half the field venturing out as the session resumed.
Times quickly tumbled, Fernando Alonso going quickest with a 1:40.687s with five minutes remaining.
Not everyone headed out, nor did everyone record a time; Daniel Ricciardo logged seven laps but never crossed the stripe to set a lap time.
Piastri did, going fastest with a minute to go with a 1:39.906s.
By the time the chequered flag fell, less than a minute later, the Australian had been bumped from top spot by George Russell.
The pair swapped places twice more, Piastri going faster on his final lap after the chequered flag, only for the Mercedes driver to improve.
It left Russell fastest from the McLaren driver at the top of the timesheets in a session where only 13 of the 20 drivers recorded a time.
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