Sergio Pérez followed by Charles Leclerc.
Mark Thompson, ČTK / AP
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Perez set the fastest time of 1: 04.867 at the Spielberg circuit, which also hosted the opening race of the new Austrian Grand Prix season a week ago, beating Verstappen by 96,000ths of a second. The winner of this year’s inaugural race, Bottas, was two tenths behind him, and only a little slower was his team-mate and six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in fourth place.
As a week ago, Ferrari lagged significantly behind the top in training, but this time the Italian team tested improvements to the cars, which it was not to present until a week later in Hungary. Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel was tenth with a loss of nine tenths and Charles Leclerc, who entered the season in an unexpected second place on Sunday, was two places worse.
The second training session in Spielberg, which will be the first track in history to host two races in one season, will start at 3 p.m.
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