Almost the entire field opened their lap tallies on the medium tyres, barring the hard-shod Ferrari duo, and ownership over the fastest lap time quickly changed hands as the times tumbled.
Valtteri Bottas was among the first drivers to set a somewhat representative time, but it didn't last long at the top as the circuit continued to rubber in; Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton set times in the high 1m15s, until Verstappen vaulted to the top with a 1m15.487s.
George Russell found 0.005s to move to the top, but Bottas then reclaimed the bragging rights before he was quickly displaced by Esteban Ocon.
The Frenchman was surpassed by Alonso, who went nearly a second faster, before Verstappen brought the session into the 1m13s with a 1m13.985s.
Alonso attempted to gazump the Dutchman, but his 1m14.227s fell down in the final sector as his opening salvo was initially quicker. Hamilton was successful in his attempt to reach the top, shading his 2021 title rival by a scant 0.001s, but Verstappen out-did the Briton with a 1m13.857s.
Verstappen's next efforts exerted his control, with a 1m13.567s followed by a 1m13.312s to bring the medium-compound running to a conclusion.
On softs, Alonso leapfrogged him with a 1m12.786s and held the fort for a good 10 minutes until countryman Sainz fired in a 1m12.569s to reclaim his time-topping efforts from the opening practice session.
Although Verstappen opened his soft-tyre running with the best first sector, he lost ground in the following splits and plonked his car into third, ahead of Charles Leclerc - who was struggling with his Ferrari "jumping" through the tighter corners.
Alonso also stormed to the quickest first sector on another soft-tyre effort, but lost ground thanks to traffic in the final part of the lap and could not overhaul Sainz on that occasion - and was shy of the quickest time by 0.113s.
Source: Autosport