Verstappen logged a 1m19.718s on softs, having dispatched Lando Norris from top spot as the McLaren driver had been among the first of the frontrunners to switch to the red-walled tyre. Norris had gone just 0.008s faster than Verstappen's medium-tyre effort of a 1m20.245s - but the Dutchman returned to the top on his first soft run.
Albon then set the best first sector as he offered Verstappen more than a token challenge and, although the Williams driver lost a sprinkling of time in the following two splits, he still sat within a tenth of his former team-mate.
This allowed the Anglo-Thai driver to split the Red Bulls, as Sergio Perez was approximately 0.3s behind Verstappen's headline time. This put him above Norris, after the Briton's brief spell at the top.
Charles Leclerc was fifth fastest after overcoming early worries after reporting a "metal noise" at full throttle on his opening tours of the circuit.
The full field, aside from Oscar Piastri, had trialled Pirelli's prototype C4 tyre in the opening quarter of the session prior to their exploration of the compounds to be used over the rest of the weekend. Piastri used his prototype tyre allocation later to set his best time, which put him sixth overall.
Carlos Sainz was seventh fastest despite losing hydraulic pressure early in the session, which forced him to crawl back to the pitlane in fourth gear. Ferrari was able to implement a fix that allowed him to continue his running relatively unabated.
Daniel Ricciardo was just within a tenth of the Spaniard, as Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll completed the top 10 ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, who was a second off Verstappen's time.
Nico Hulkenberg jumped up to 12th at the end of the session, having had to abort an earlier quick lap on his softs after coming across a slow Aston Martin within the Foro Sol stadium section. This put him ahead of Zhou Guanyu, who was spotted with work being done to his Alfa Romeo towards the end of the session, and Williams' Logan Sargeant.
Source: Autosport