The Mercedes drivers were struggling with rear-end grip on their short runs. Alonso appeared to be running a higher engine power mode than his immediate rivals.

The Spaniard said: “I feel good. It is only free practice. As we saw last year and also in Bahrain, we are faster in free practice than in qualifying. I think we run different strategy in terms of fuel loads and engine modes.”

Russell said: “Little bit of a scrappy session. Didn’t have the car in the perfect window. Not too sure where we’re at, really. The Ferraris and Astons look like our closest rivals.”

There were no major incidents in the session, but a series of drivers had problems with impeding, caused by the walls lining the track which reduce visibility, and the way the track contains many sections where it swerves left and right at high speed.

One of these incidents involved Hamilton, who impeded Williams driver Logan Sergeant. Stewards investigated the incident and concluded Hamilton had not been given sufficient warning of the American’s approach. He was given an official warning and the team fined 15,000 euros.

Hamilton said: “Difficult day. Just lacking confidence in the rear of the car. I had a couple of really big moments and in these high-speed areas you need to have full faith in the rear of the car and I’ve just not got that yet.

“George is a lot happier with his car. We kind of went in different directions today but all I want is a stable rear and then I’ll be happy.”

Verstappen might not have been fastest over one lap, but the Red Bull’s pace on a long run was as strong as ever.

The three-time champion was comfortably quickest on the race-simulation runs towards the end of the session, when drivers fill up their cars with fuel.

Russell was next quickest, closely matched with Hamilton and Perez, with the proviso that the Mercedes drivers did very few laps compared with Verstappen’s team-mate Perez.