Charles Leclerc finished second for Ferrari, with Sergio Perez third in the other RB20 and Carlos Sainz’s illness-replacement, Oliver Bearman, taking 10th in the second of the Scuderia’s machines.
Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas ventured out on track first, with plenty of attention already on Bearman – a crowd of cameras and photographers clustered in front of what is now is garage.
Bottas posted the initial benchmark at 1m31.307s, with Bearman soon out behind him and also running the medium tyres.
He initially lapped nearly two seconds off Bottas’s pace, with Hamilton then beating the pair with a 1m30.793s on the soft tyres approaching the 10-minute mark.
Just past this, with Bearman’s second flier bringing him closer to the pace, Bottas re-took first place with a 1m30.770s, before Bearman pipped that with a 1m30.277s.
Hamilton, however, had also carried on for a second flier on his softs and he took this back to the top spot with a 1m30.253s as the opening quarter concluded, with most of pack still in the pits.
This did not include George Russell in the other Mercedes, as he was already out – also on the softs – but running a lower-downforce rear wing package compared to Hamilton.
Source: Autosport