On a warm and sunny afternoon in the Styrian hills, Lewis Hamilton opened the session with a 1m09.021s, but Max Verstappen's 1m08.094s soon blew that into the reeds as the current championship leader made the most of the session's early phases.
Sergio Perez turned up the pace with a 1m07.595s lap to go top and, although Verstappen closed off the opening five minutes with a 1m07.145s, the Mexican posted a 1m07.111s to continue the early tete-a-tete over the fastest time - both circulating on the hard compound tyres.
Verstappen hit back with a 1m06.961s to demonstrate Red Bull's early duopoly at its home circuit, but this was interrupted by Fernando Alonso's 1m06.656s on the yellow-walled Pirelli boots as the Spaniard flew to the top.
A scant 0.058s in hand proved enough for Verstappen to reclaim the top spot, before Hamilton punched in a 1m06.416s to move above his 2021 title rival.
The order remained relatively settled as the opening half-hour came to a close, although the top five was later disrupted by the presence of Alex Albon on soft tyres, following Williams' decision to forgo the opening 20 minutes of the session.
As the session approached its final 15 minutes, more teams elected to explore the limits of the Red Bull Ring circuit on soft tyres in preparation for qualifying later in the day.
Lance Stroll launched himself into second, just 0.134s away from Hamilton's time on the hard tyre, but the top three swiftly changed as Charles Leclerc went to the top on soft tyres. Perez then moved up to second on the medium, before the two were beaten by Verstappen's 1m06.084s on the middle tyre set.
Source: Autosport