Verstappen set his headline time halfway through FP1 as the Red Bulls proved to be on the pace straight away, and looked untouchable in a warning shot to his rivals as they hope to end the Milton Keynes squad's monopoly on race wins in 2023.
This was F1's first session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya without the much-derided final chicane since 2006, making Fernando Alonso the only driver to have competed with the original final two corners.
Alonso was the first driver to hit the road in the session, much to the delight of the home fans, and carried two front-end-mounted aero rakes on his exploratory laps to assess the airflow patterns behind the front wheels.
This came amid most of the cars running a prototype Pirelli construction, developed in response to escalating loads produced by the F1 cars. This is set to be introduced for the British Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen was top of the times after the opening five minutes of the session on the new C1 construction, setting a 1m17.425s to chisel Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez off top spot.
He then logged a 1m16.583s just as Perez had got to within 0.04s of the Dutchman's previous lap, to extend his advantage to over eight-tenths of a second.
The Red Bulls then switched to the medium tyre, Perez posting a 1m16.420s before Verstappen overhauled his team-mate with a 1m15.945s, and was a second and a half clear of Nico Hulkenberg in third as the Haas driver opened his session on the soft tyre.
Source: Autosport